


War Within

by Ladytronus



Series: A Story Untold [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Everyone is in this, F/F, F/M, First Nations Mythology, Found Family, Gen, Horror, I have no idea what tags I should add, Lúcio and Satya slowly learn to trust one another, M/M, Mama Bear Ana, Monsters, Multi, Mutual Pining, Parasites, Romance, Scary underwater things, Shambali, Slow Burn, So much body horror, a biphobic villain who will die an ironic death, because those freak me out a lot, don't worry though the author is cree so there's no appropriating going on, there's no way around that, this story is going to be super long
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 18:42:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 102,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7903501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladytronus/pseuds/Ladytronus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new Shambali leader rises up from Mondatta's ashes, and she has dreams and hopes for the future, some of which involve Zenyatta. Overwatch and the Shambali are drawn into a sinister plot and a battle against monstrous creatures whose past, present, and future may very well tip the delicate balance between humans and omnics. </p>
<p>A dark storm approaches, and Overwatch may be the only ones who can withstand the wind and rain. Beware the cold and guard your heart from fear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Once Upon a Time

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written a fanfic in a really, really long time, but I'm going to give it my very best go.

**Shambali Monastery, _15 years ago_**

The air got cold up in the mountains of Nepal. This was absolutely expected, but Zenyatta found that being prepared for something in theory was vastly different from facing it in reality. The frigid atmosphere attacked him the moment he had set foot at the base of the mountain, and had treacherously hounded him on his journey upwards. In the weeks after his arrival, he had spent many, many long meditation sessions daydreaming about the scorching and unforgiving sun that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and India endured. He had been annoyed by the sun then, but now he would have given up a limb, however much that was worth on the black market, for a chance to feel true warmth again.

He strongly suspected that his Master chose this particular ledge-- infamous for being the coldest and draftiest in the monastery-- to teach Zenyatta how to focus on one’s self even through physical discomforts and hardship. An important lesson to learn, perhaps, but an unpleasant enough one that Zenyatta would keep up an endless stream of internal complaints whenever the cold was sharp enough that he couldn’t focus.

“Be at peace, my student.” Mondatta said, his voice deep and soothing, yet so quietly grand that it was like the very force of the universe itself. It had been many months since Zenyatta had become Mondatta’s student, but he still found himself feeling awe and admiration at the spiritual strength of his master. Outside, where the slowly rising fame of the Shambali was viewed with suspicion from the humans and cautious intrigue from the omnics, Mondatta was a near mystical being who could sway the world with the truth of his words and bring understanding and harmony to those willing to listen and believe. He was an enigma to all, a mystery that even Zenyatta had no hope of solving, as Mondatta kept everything close, even from his student.

It was well known that Mondatta rarely took students, he left the actual teachings to his Monks, so it was a huge surprise for everyone, Zenyatta included, when the Shambali leader chose him, of all omnics, to become his student. To this day, Zenyatta wasn’t sure what quality he had that had drawn Mondatta’s attention. Everyone had assumed that there was something special about Zenyatta, but he wasn’t so sure how he was different from every other Shambali hopeful that had been present at the time.

“Yes, Master.” Zenyatta sighed, and tried once more to bring his thoughts together and then slowly let them go. They had been trying for several weeks to perfect Zenyatta’s meditation techniques, but something about them consistently eluded Zenyatta’s grasp. Every time he thought he was close, his natural desire to move and wander tugged at him causing his hard-fought serenity to scatter, and a bored impatience to creep up on him. Each time felt worse than the last, and he was sure he was falling short of Mondatta’s expectations. This left the young omnic feeling very worried and unsure, as he knew that the monks were watching him carefully too, judging him and trying to figure out what he was capable of.

At the moment, Zenyatta felt like he wasn’t really capable of anything.

Mondatta was, as ever, unbothered by both the biting cold and his fidgeting student. He looked as he always did: Serenely perfect as he meditated with the gold and red sunset gently outlining his white figure, as if the heavens themselves were gently caressing the Shambali leader before retreating from the world. 

Zenyatta wondered if he would ever be like that. To be so at peace with the world that everything surrounding him felt like it was in harmony. He doubted it; he’d never be able to measure up to Mondatta.

A few moments passed, and the golden light faded into darkness behind the mountains, leaving the sky clear for the stars to shine. Despite knowing that he should be concentrating on harmony and inner peace, Zenyatta gave in and allowed his focus to cartwheel energetically away, and then looked up to admire the beautifully star-strewn sky. They were so far away, so far beyond his imagination that he couldn’t help but let his spirit soar towards them. 

“There are many stories told about the stars.”

Ah, he had been found out.

Zenyatta was yanked gently back to Earth at the sound of his mentor’s voice. The Shambali leader was watching him with a small air of amusement, and Zenyatta immediately felt embarrassed by his own lack of discipline. 

“I have heard of some of them.” Zenyatta said sheepishly, “The story of Orion, Ursa Major, and others too. Most cultures have their own stories connected to the stars.” Although many human story-tellers didn’t tolerate omnics in the audience, there were a special few who welcomed them. Welcomed him. He had spent many hours sitting and listening to them talk with a sense of awe he never really understood. How he loved listening to them. 

He missed them. The Shambali monks were not the most imaginative group of people to the point where it was sometimes a little chafing. 

With a possible exception to one. 

“Why do you suppose people tell stories?”

This question immediately stumped him, and he had to squish his automatic impulse to reply with “I don’t know.” This response always displeased Mondatta, especially if it came so soon after the question was given. 

“I... suppose they needed some kind of entertainment. It’s not like they had much else to do a while ago.”

Mondatta hummed thoughtfully.

“Who are ‘they?’”

“Master?”

“When you said “ _they_ needed some kind of entertainment,” whom exactly did you mean?”

Zenyatta backtracked a few steps and tried to figure out where he went wrong.

“Humans. Humans are the ones who make the stories, and they were the ones who needed entertaining all those years ago.”

His mentor went silent at this as he considered his student’s words.

“Would you like to hear a story, Zenyatta?”

The request was neither strange or unexpected considering their conversation, but Zenyatta was left feeling puzzled and wary anyway. Mondatta was extremely cunning and had an unnerving ability to predict what others were going to do before they do it. A dangerous combination. He was also prone to launching his student into tests before he was ready, and then offering up the lesson once the test was given. Sometimes he was simply cryptic to amuse himself, and it as under Mondatta’s tutelage that Zenyatta found out that he wasn’t very good at puzzles or riddles. Which was terribly unfortunate, as Mondatta loved doling them out whenever the mood struck.

“Yes...?”

Mondatta laughed at his caution and moved so that they were facing each other, and Zenyatta took this chance to examine his Master for what was likely the thousandth time. When it came to their frame, Mondatta’s build was no different from Zenyatta’s or thousands of other Omnics currently in creation, but when it came to Mondatta’s soul, something Zenyatta became more and more sure existed the longer he spent amongst the Shambali, he shone brighter than even the sun and the moon itself. Rather like the jewels of the heavens, Mondatta himself often felt just as unreachable and untouchable. Having him as a teacher was a very humbling experience.

“Once upon a time there lived two birds; One was a beautiful robin and the other was a sparrow. One day, the robin was going about his business when he came across the sparrow with a broken wing and most of his feathers plucked from his body. Concerned for the welfare of the sparrow, the robin took care of it and stayed by his side, no matter how fiercely the sparrow pecked and struggled.

Eventually, the sparrow calmed down and said ‘ _Why do you stay? I have nothing to offer you._ ’ To this, the robin replied ‘ _I ask nothing of you, but I can feel something within you, a pain greater and deeper than the broken wing. Please, tell me what is wrong._ ’ The spallow did not reply the first day, nor the second, nor the third, but on the fourth day, he replied. ‘ _My heart is broken and my feathers have been torn from my body. I cannot be fixed, so I deserve this broken wing. I deserve to sit here and let a fox eat me, because without my feathers, I am nothing. Without my wings, I am nothing. I cannot even be called a bird._ ’ The robin was a wise creature, and he could not bear to see the sparrow suffer any more. ‘ _Stay with me,_ ’ he said, this bird’s beauty and love shining through his infinite kindness, a warm spot, like the gentle sun against a willow tree, in the universe ‘ _stay with me and I will teach you peace. I will show you beauty, and, most importantly, you will learn to love yourself and be loved as you deserve to be loved. This I promise you.’_

The sparrow refused the robin several times, but he did not leave. The robin was persistent, and eventually the sparrow gave under the weight of the robin’s loving heart. True to the robin’s word, the sparrow found peace with his ruined form, and his wing and his heart were eventually healed under the robin’s tender care. The robin and the sparrow found love and peace with each other, and in the end, all was well.”

Mondatta spread his hands as the story ended and then waited for Zenyatta to say something. Figuring that this was a test of some kind, Zenyatta thought long and hard about the story, but couldn’t find any real meaning to it. At first he toyed with the idea that this was about him and Mondatta, but quickly discarded it because he knew he was not a broken sparrow, and Mondatta was more than a mere robin.

“So they lived happily ever after?” Zenyatta said eventually, “that seems a bit... dull.”

His mentor took this into consideration, his gaze upon his student in that sometimes unnerving and mysterious way of his. Often it felt as though Mondatta knew many things that others did not, and was only compelled to share his knowledge very rarely.

“Is that so? And why would happiness be dull?”

“It‘s not! However, as far as stories goes, this one could be a little more exciting.”

“And what would make it more exciting?”

“Perhaps the sparrow would nobly sacrifice himself for the robin? During an attack from a... mongoose?” He paused, because he wasn’t sure if sparrows, robins, and mongooses existed in the same area.

“How about an eagle?” 

“Yes! And then the sparrow kills the eagle to save the robin. That would be a better victory.”

“Would it now?” His mentor looked at him with his head tilted, making Zenyatta wonder if he had said something wrong.

“Where did you hear this story, master?” He asked, hoping to move the conversation along a little. His teacher, at least, seemed pleased by this question.

“I made it up myself, right at this moment.”

“...Why?”

“Stories are used to to make sense of the world around us, and to give meaning to the emotions and experiences of others and ourselves. Using words, we help shape our own existence in a way we can understand, and we can use stories to imagine a better future, one that we know in our hearts we want to strive for. This, as you know, is not a purely human experience.”

He tilted his head at Zenyatta again, and his student felt a kernel of understanding ignite somewhere within him. 

“You and I are not human, but together we created a story about a sparrow who fell in love with a robin, and then proceeded to sacrifice his well-being to keep that robin safe. All for nothing, as it turned out in the end, but the gesture itself was worth more than one can imagine. My point being that stories are a way of helping us define our own soul, giving it words and meaning that we might not have been able to find ourselves.”

Zenyatta wasn’t sure what his mentor meant by “all for nothing”, as he hadn’t told that part of the story, but decided to let it go.

“Do you understand?”

A pause. “I do.”

Mondatta nodded, believing him and being pleased with the answer.

“Never underestimate the power of a good story, Zenyatta.”


	2. It Was A Dark and Stormy Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, on with the plot!

Once there was a monster with a broken soul  
All It wanted was to feel strong and whole  
But fearful were the big and the small  
So in Its agony, It devoured them all 

**Tokyo, Japan, _Present day_**

The sky was unusually dark and stormy tonight, especially considering that it was supposed to be a lovely and cloudless evening. Genji didn’t spend any time dwelling on that, instead preferring to go to the rooftop of their hotel to find his master. Zenyatta had said he would wait in their room while Genji conducted his investigations, but between the span of then and now, Zenyatta had wandered off, as he was sometimes prone to do.

For someone who could spend hours, even days, meditating in the shadow of a chilly mountain, his master had a strange inability to stay still for very long, especially if there were things happening around him. 

Here, at least, he wouldn’t wander very far.

“ _Master_.” Genji said, exasperation clear in his voice when he opened the door to see the omnic floating peacefully at the edge of the rooftop, his head raised to gaze up at the gathering storm. Genji glanced up as well, and noted that this storm was going to be particularly bad once it broke. The tall clouds were like enormous cathedrals, swirling and melding into one another. Thunder could be heard, a deep, ominous, rumble from high above, harkening the arrival of something devastating. 

Or, perhaps, he was just overthinking it.

“Ah, Genji, you’ve returned.” Zenyatta was apparently unbothered by Genji’s faint annoyance at him, and even had the nerve to gesture at the space next to him, inviting him to meditate, as he usually did. 

“How goes your investigations?”

Genji sighed, his annoyance quickly melting away, something that happened easily while with Zenyatta, and he obediently sat down next to his master. He couldn’t help but look up at his master, who meditated before the gathering storm like a deity out of a storybook. His omnic master’s slender chest and delicate arms always gave others the impression that he was fragile, or worse, weak. Genji knew better, and he couldn’t help a feeling of awe at the unshakeable serenity Zenyatta was able to achieve in even the most dangerous circumstances. If Genji had even half of Zenyatta’s tranquillity, then he’d probably be the wisest and most peaceful man alive. 

“Whatever Winston said about the Shimada clan’s activities, I cannot find anything here, and I have done nothing but look for the past couple days. There are rumours, yes, but nothing concrete, and I keep running into dead ends. What remains of the clan is still operating out of Hanamura, they are no real threat. There’s a lot more Vishkar activity, but Symmetra insists that it has nothing to do with our current assignment.”

Hanzo had been on another assignment at the time, or else Genji would have preferred he had gone instead of him. However, an order was an order, and he did his duty to the best of his ability. Zenyatta had decided to come along with him both for “moral support,” and because he had his own mission of sorts, and Genji hadn’t protested at the time. He had asked Zenyatta to stay in their room while he was gone, just in case some curious ninja wanted to know why a certain ninja cyborg was poking around in everyone’s business. This had worked for about two days before Zenyatta started to explore on his own, much to Genji’s alarm. So far Genji had found him at a bus stop, a park, a homeless shelter, and, for some odd reason, inside a grocery store. No amount of halfhearted scolding could get his stubborn master to stay still.

It was nearly impossible to be angry at him though, as Zenyatta would always reply with a calm explanation of what had fascinated him so much that he just had to go see. Genji’s resolution would scatter to the wind the moment Zenyatta started talking about all the things he encountered and the experiences, both big and small, that occurred to him during their brief moments apart.

Genji had never met anyone so in love with the world, and he could sit there forever and listen to Zenyatta wax poetic about everything.

Besides, it wasn’t as though Zenyatta wasn’t aware of the dangers that surrounded them. If anything, his awareness was such that it was almost impossible to sneak up on him. Not _completely_ impossible, of course, because Genji was a ninja and could do it if he actually tried, but for a casual person, it would be very difficult. He was quite sure that Zenyatta could handle a casual.

This assurance never really stopped Genji’s automatic need to fret over his Master, however.

“We should go inside, it is about to rain.” Genji said, standing up and looking again at the black clouds overhead. “And by ‘rain’ I mean that we will likely be able to swim through the sky itself. It will be like that one dream I had, except there’s a very good chance that there will be no sky whales.”

Zenyatta laughed at Genji’s aimless ramble, and Genji felt his entire body lift at the sound of that wonderful laugh. If Zenyatta were to do it again, he was quite sure that he _would_ actually be able to swim through the air. A third laugh might send him right to the moon.

“If you _do_ decide to swim through the air, be sure to let me know so that I may follow you.” Zenyatta said playfully, relaxing out of his meditative state and placing his feet delicately on the ground. “A flying, swimming cyborg ninja sounds like a sight worth paying for.”

Another ominous rumble from above interrupts Genji’s forming question about whether Zenyatta even had any money, and suddenly he felt like he was on a timer. More puzzling though was a sudden chill he had, as if the air around him had dropped sharply a few degrees. He dismissed it as a weather thing, and lead the way to the door, giving it a confident tug.

“...”

“Is there a problem, my student?”

“The door is locked.”

And almost as if the universe itself understood the value of comedic timing, there was a deafening crash directly overhead, and the heavens opened up to unleash their watery fury on the hapless teacher and student duo.

xXx

**  
**  
_Ten minutes later_  


“Genji.”

Zenyatta said patiently as the two of them dried themselves in their hotel room. Despite only being outside for a few minutes, they both looked as though they had bodily tossed themselves into a river and stayed there for a couple hours. Zenyatta’s pants were soaked, and he took them off and hung them in the bathroom. Genji did an admirable job pretending that this didn’t bother him. 

“I can think of many other ways we could have solved that problem, and I think that that repelling down the side of the building and entering through the window should have been the third option at least, not the first.”

“We got in in the end, didn’t we, master?”

“Yes, but only after entering through the wrong window. It was extremely fortunate that no one was there at the time, or else they would have had to face the terrifying reality of an omnic monk and a cyborg ninja breaking into their room.”

“Ah, but we wouldn’t have been out there in the first place Master, if you hadn’t been there yourself. How were you planning to get down anyway?”

Completely unrepentant, Zenyatta laughed again, and Genji was instantly back to the idea that his master could do no wrong. “I suppose I would have waited for you to come and get me, or, perhaps, called the front desk.”

There was a pause.

“You can do that?”

“Yes.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No.”

Genji supposed he was so quick to pick up his master and jump off the building that he hadn’t bothered thinking of the most obvious solution. Still, it had been an exciting few minutes while it lasted.

A comfortable silence followed, and Genji removed his mask, he didn’t need it while around Zenyatta, and went to turn on the TV, absently flipping to the news. Five Shambali monks were on the screen, with the news anchor talking about how the Shambali were here to spread their message, and would be giving their speech at a downtown stadium tomorrow. Behind him, he heard Zenyatta sigh with slight disapproval. 

“At least they are keeping to Mondatta’s teachings, even after his death.” Zenyatta mused, settling down on the bed and staring up at the screen. “I wonder where Sunyatta is. He used to accompany Mondatta in all his speeches. It is strange that he is not here now.” The omnic was suddenly very hard to read. The fact that Zenyatta was here at the same time as the Shambali was no coincidence, Zenyatta came here specifically to talk to them, as Winston wanted to know more about them and how they were doing after Mondatta’s death. Zenyatta had been an obvious choice for this, but he had lightly refused to go back to the Temple, instead choosing to go meet them in Japan. 

“ _-And the new Shambali leader, Pimâtan Niiwana, will be making her first public appearance and speech right here in Japan. We are so glad that the Shambali still stand proud, even after the assassination of their former leader, Tekhartha Mondatta at King’s Row several months ago._

 _We will keep you updated on the Shambali, in the meantime, this weather in Tokyo is extremely unusual, isn’t it Amrit? I remember you promising us a clear night tonight, what happened?_ ”

“ _Aha, well you see Yuko-_ ”

Genji muted it and sat down next to his master. They sat in compatible silence for a while both of them listening to the roar of the wind and rain battering against their window. The building shuddered as thunder clashed close enough that it sounded like two large trucks were repeatedly ramming into each other outside their window. Lightning flashed, and the lights flickered, before going out altogether. Genji turned his own biolights on, illuminating the room in a gentle green.

Storms had never frightened Genji, even as a child. His father had told him that the thunder and lightening were just dragons playing their godly games, and Genji had found it hard to be afraid after that. Something about this one, however, made him feel deeply uneasy. The restlessness he sensed from Zenyatta suggested that he felt it too.

He looked at his Master, and saw that he was deep in thought, but not in the meditative way. Knowing what was on his mind, Genji summoned up every ounce of courage he had, and reached over to take Zenyatta’s hand. His master stirred, startled by this sudden contact, but then he gratefully squeezed Genji’s hand, to let him know that the touch was welcomed. 

“I’ll be right here with you, Master.” Genji said softly. He had already made this promise in his heart a very long time ago, but it always felt good to say it out loud. His promise was rewarded with Zenyatta sighing and leaning against him, his worry and uncertainty now much easier to see. The Shambali had been weighing heavily on his master’s mind ever since Winston had given him his mission, and Genji was pained by how much this distressed the omnic.

With considerably less hesitation this time, Genji put an arm around his mentor, and the two of them continued to sit quietly. 

“I wonder if they will... be happy to see me.”

Zenyatta said finally, his low voice barely heard over the howling wind banging on their window. Genji heard just fine, and he gave him a reassuring squeeze.

“We didn’t speak much at Mondatta’s funeral, and I was under the impression that they... that they were upset that I was not there with him in King’s Row. I fear that I will no longer be welcome among them again, despite them being my brothers and sisters still. Do they still feel the same way? We did not part on good terms.” There was a subtle crackle in his voice, one that Genji had only heard once or twice before. His heart constricted, and he ached to protect his master from any of potentially sharp or terrible words the Shambali might give him. 

“I can’t imagine anyone hating you for any reason.” He said eventually, “You chose your path, and they should accept that. Besides, they agreed to a meeting, yes? I think if they never wanted to speak to you again, they would have refused.”

There was a pause, and then Zenyatta nodded. “Yes, you are right.” A smile could be heard in his voice now, “Thank you Genji, I am glad you are here.”

Genji smiled too, and Zenyatta seemed to brighten at the sight of it.

“What else is a cyborg ninja for? Come, we should sleep if we want to get to the Shambali early tomorrow.” Sleep in their shared bed, of all things. There was a tragic mix-up with the front desk, and the two of them ended up with a room with only one bed. If only Genji could even pretend he was disappointed by this development. 

“Yes, lets.”

They settled down with the noble intention of sleeping on opposite ends of the bed like respectful individuals, but somehow ended up laying snugly back-to-back against each other.

“Sleep well, Zenyatta.”

“And you, Genji.”

xXx

**Meanwhile, somewhere else**

_Drip, drip_

The sound that Fatima knew was not water slithered its ways into her dreams. If you could call the terrifying jumble of memory and delusions “dreams”, anyway. They were not even nightmares; her sleeping moments were filled with something so terrible that it flew completely beyond her comprehension. Were there even any words she knew, in all three languages she was fluent in, to describe what they were?

It didn’t matter. She needed to wake up.

She clawed at the corners of her consciousness and slowly dragged herself back to the real world. In the back of her mind, something told her that she should turn around. Whatever was out there was greater and more powerful than anything found in here. Her mind was a kinder prison, she should embrace it.

Fatima was many things, but a coward had never been one of them.

When she woke up, she experienced a feeling very similar to waking up before her body was ready. Her eyes would not open, her voice did not work, and her limbs did not move on her command. A prisoner of her own body this time instead of her mind. She wasn’t sure which one terrified her the most.

In order to distract herself from her rising tidal wave of panic, she forced herself to think. She was good at thinking. Where were the others? She knew that there were others. They had been staying at the same hostel together, and they were all her in Japan for the same reason. It had been exciting and magical when they had met each other in Beijing and realized that they shared a common goal. Truly, it had been fate.

Three omnics and three humans, including herself. That was what their group was comprised of. Despite a few squabbles here and there, they had gotten along very well, and they were all proud of it.

But why would she come here? 

And why couldn’t she remember?

She stopped struggling and took a deep breath. All she needed to do was calm down and things would be okay. Comforted by her own lies and delusions, she strained her ears to hear something beyond the gentle dripping of something that was not water.

In the distance, overhead, she heard the boom of thunder and the continuous roar of a torrential rainfall. Somewhere to her right she heard the echoing of water rushing through a narrow space, like a tunnel. She was underground, but she was also not in the sewers or anywhere similar. The lack of bad smells gave that away.

As the situation became clearer to her, she felt her heart sink. She wasn’t going to be heard over the storm, not even if she screamed for hours at the top of her lungs. No one was going to find her here. Her body felt like it had been frozen beyond her reach, and never in her life had she been so helpless.

This is the end, she thought, it had to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I thought that writing up a few chapters before I put up the first one would benefit me in some way, and I was right. Writing them beforehand helped me figure exactly how I wanted my story to sound and I'm glad I did, but what I hadn't expected was it to be a test of my patience, because I have the natural impulse to just throw down all my written chapters all at once. The smart thing to do would be to set up a schedule for myself, but eh. The next chapter will come next time my patience runs out.


	3. Where Evil Things Lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our brave Teacher and Student duo go and meet the Shambali, and find that things have not changed as much as Zenyatta had feared. The Shambali Leader, Pimâtan, has a proposal for Zenyatta that could change everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's ready for some subtle math jokes? No one?
> 
> Well, I see how it is.

After a restful sleep, Zenyatta and Genji rose in good spirits the next morning. It helped that the rain had stopped, leaving a drowsy and uncomfortable wetness behind. Usually the air would feel cleaner after it rained, but Zenyatta felt as though the world had been drenched in something filthy. He shook this off after his internal sensors told him that the water on the ground was no more polluted than it usually was. It must be his imagination.

The plan was to meet the Shambali at the hotel the monks were staying at, a fancy place that was provided to them by the hotel owners themselves. Zenyatta would have taken the time to admire how nicely built the building was, except the view was distressingly obscured by dozens of police officers and other officials patrolling the area. They had expected increased security around the monks, but this was something else entirely.

“Something is wrong.”

Zenyatta said, perhaps unnecessarily as he could already feel Genji tense up beside him. 

They went inside anyway and were met at the front desk by someone familiar. 

“Master Botu.” Zenyatta said cautiously, intending to start out formal to see how things went from there. He needn’t have bothered, as a squat and wide copper-coloured monk with four dots arranged in a tight square clapped his hands with delight at the sight of him and bounded forward to sweep Zenyatta into an energetic hug.

“ _Master Zenyatta!_ I am so glad to see you! It’s been far too long, my friend!” And just like that, all of Zenyatta’s worries and fears melted away and he burst out into delighted laughter. Botu, who had always been a boisterous monk, eventually put him down and turned his attention to Genji.

“And Genji too! It’s been so long since I’ve last seen you two! You could stand to write sometime, eh? Knowing the both of you, I bet you’ve been on many adventures, and I want to hear about it all!”

Genji tried to say something, but Botu cheerfully cut him off.

“No need to apologise, however! I understand things can get busy and I can find it in my heart to forgive you! But first I must bring you to our room! Yes, this is why I was waiting here.

Come, come!”

The teacher and student pair shared an amused look and followed the monk towards the elevator.

“It is nice to see that Master Botu hasn’t changed in the years we’ve been gone.” Genji said in a low voice, and Zenyatta nodded in agreement. 

“The universe would most certainly be at a loss if he somehow learned how to be quiet.” 

They chuckled quietly over that as they entered the elevator behind their cheerful friend.

“There is a lot of activity out there today.” Zenyatta said as the doors closed, “Is it something to be concerned about?” Immediately, he could tell that the answer was yes, as Botu’s broad, copper face fell, and his dots, all four of them, dimmed.

“Something terrible has happened.” He said, his voice laced with a deep sadness. “Master Pimâtan can explain it better than I can. And there’s one other thing. You remember Sunyatta, yes? Ah, well nevermind, we’ll talk about that later.” Worried now, Zenyatta reached out and placed a comforting hand on Botu’s shoulder. Botu let out a long sigh and patted the hand appreciatively. 

“The others have missed you too, you know.” He said, turning to face Zenyatta fully. “None of us really felt like talking at Mondatta’s funeral, but we were all so...” His words halted, stumbling over the memory of the loss of the most important person in their lives. “No one blames you for it. Not for leaving or anything like that. You chose your path, and Mondatta made it very clear to all of us that you were always welcome back.”

If Zenyatta could cry, he would have shed a few happy tears. His brothers and sisters didn’t hate him as he had feared. All was well, and he had worried himself sick over nothing. He could feel Genji, his wonderful Genji, lean gently against him as if to say “I’m glad everything is okay.”

Then, an unexpected chill went up his back, as if someone had dragged a cold hand across it. He shivered, and Genji looked at him with concern. Zenyatta only shook his head to let him know that all was well, and put the matter from his mind. 

“Ah! And here we are!” The door dinged open, and Botu lead them down a hallway to one lone room at the end. That door was opened and Zenyatta found himself surrounded by four excited monks.”

“Zenyatta! Pleasure to have you back!”

“Heard you were running with Overwatch now! How exciting! You need to tell us about it!”

“-didn’t even bother writing! So bloody inconsiderate! You’re lucky we’re a forgiving bunch!”

“Is it true that Lúcio is a part of Overwatch? Can you get me his autograph?”

Zenyatta allowed the warm chatter to wash over him. It was so familiar, that even though he was not at the monastery, he felt completely at home. These omnics had been his family for most of his life, and he hadn’t truly realized how much he had missed them until he was here, being talked at and over by this group of usually calm monks. He felt a moment of amusement at Genji, for none of the monks were speaking the same language. His poor pupil must be a bit lost, trying to follow this chaotic spiral of a conversation.

“I am indeed a part of Overwatch, though that is supposed to be confidential information.” Though it was not his “native” language, Zenyatta slipped easily into Nepali. He could speak and understand all known languages, but some languages felt more right against his vocal processors than others. Japanese was another such language, and he suspected that Genji heavily influenced this preference.

Pyth, a monk originally from Hungary, finally noticed Genji, and the conversation turned and surged swiftly towards the ninja. Out of respect for him, the Shambali switched to either Japanese or English. The others, Soh, Cah, and Toa from England, Japan, and Brazil respectively, followed suit.

“And we missed you too, Genji!” Pyth said, tilting her silver head at him. Her forehead was arranged in a three point triangle pointing diagonally downwards to the left. “The village children used to ask us when Genji was coming back. I understand that you play entertaining games of tag and hide-and-seek.

Genji laughed guiltily and rubbed the back of his neck. “Forgive me for not keeping in touch. How are the children? Are they well?”

“They are very well!” Cah, perfectly identical to Soh and Toa, only with the arrangement on her forehead a three point triangle pointing directly right. “A few are old enough now to consider leaving to attend colleges outside of the village. We would be sad to see them go, but life goes ever on, and change is necessary for growth.”

“I’ve had a lot less to do since you guys upped and disappeared.” Soh said flatly, examining Genji and Zenyatta up and down with a critical eye. Their was a triangle pointed left. “The other Shambali monks just don’t get into trouble as effectively as you do. I hadn’t realized how much you kept me busy until you were gone.” Soh was the unofficial repair omnic for the Shambali. They had their own, actual, repairman, but it was generally known that Soh was the best at what they did. It was pretty impressive for someone originally designed for waste disposal.

The last was Toa, who had originally asked about Lúcio’s autograph. His arrow pointed down. “You’ll be staying for a while, won’t you Zenyatta? It would be too bad if you showed up after all these years and then immediately left again. I miss meditating with you.”

Zenyatta’s reply was interrupted by the arrival of none other than the Shambali leader herself. Pimâtan Niiwan walked into the room and the chatter ceased immediately. The monks in the room bowed their heads respectfully and stood quietly on either side of Genji and Zenyatta.

In appearance, there were a few striking resemblances between her and Mondatta, such as her white matte plating on her facial plating, and her five lights were elegantly arranged in a diamond pattern, with one glowing blue dot in the middle, and then another on each point. Her head design as a little outside the standard, with her head starting at the narrow point of her chin, and then ending with a wavy point behind her head. Pimâtan’s robes were a simple red colour with a yellow and black trim, and, interestingly enough, her sleeves were lined with small metal cones that jingled pleasantly against each other whenever she moved. Dangling from a cord around her neck was a circle with a cross through it, and Zenyatta found his attention drawn to it. Whatever that was, he knew that it was very important.

Zenyatta had met Pimâtan before of course, but for whatever reason, he had never talked to her very often, despite her being close to Mondatta and he being the Shambali leader’s student. Mondatta had never been keen to leave them alone for very long, if at all. He knew, however, that he possessed a very kind heart, and had left the monastery often to do some outside work for Mondatta.

“Master Pimâtan.” He and Genji bowed.

“Zenyatta, it is good to have you with us.”

While Mondatta had been the wind and the embodiment of the universe beyond Earth, Pimâtan was like the ocean, and the embodiment of the universe within Earth. Deep and mysterious, but approachable in a way Mondatta hadn’t been.

He had to gently scold himself for his continuous comparison between her and Mondatta. Hadn’t he hated in when others did that to him? Within the Shambali, there had always been a feeling that, though they could all try for a thousand years, none of them would ever truly measure up to Tekhartha Mondatta. He felt a burst of empathy for the new Shambali leader, for he can only imagine how she felt about the entire world judging her based on Mondatta, and what they would say if she somehow didn’t measure up to an almost impossible standard.

“I understand that you all wish to catch up with our friends,” she said to her monks, “but we have business we need to discuss. Now would be a good time for reflection. We have much to do tomorrow, and I doubt we will have time to collect ourselves during our speech and the events after them. Remember that we have been invited to attend the afternoon with Mr. Ito and his guests after our speech is done, and then the dinner party with Mrs. Kato in the evening.

The monks bowed and exited the room one-by-one.

“Please, sit.” She said, carefully speaking Japanese for Genji’s sake. Zenyatta noted that her accent had changed significantly since the last time they spoke together, which was years ago. He couldn’t quite place it, which puzzled him. Rather than go to the sitting area, they instead settled down in front of one of the vast floor-to-ceiling windows. The view was gorgeous, and Zenyatta indulged a few seconds to admire it. 

“I do not mean to be so curt with you, Zenyatta, but a matter of great importance has risen and I worry that it may impact our work here once word gets out. And it _will_ get out, I have no doubts on that.”

Zenyatta didn’t hesitate. “I will help in any way I can.”

Pimâtan visibly relaxed at this assurance.

“As you can tell from the police activity, a great tragedy occurred here last night. The hotel staff discovered three bodies in the alleyway behind the building. There were two omnics and one human, and each body was mutilated almost beyond recognition. It is believed that this group was here to hear us speak, and I fear that this is why they were targeted.” She sighed, but despite her distress, she kept herself regally composed.” “From what I understand, there were six in this group, but the other three are unaccounted for.” She paused again, as if mulling over how much she wanted to tell them.

“Their names were Rosetta, Ting, the omnics, and the human was named John Scole. All of them were from Canada. The missing three are Fatima Chang, Ran, and Ali McDales. The ones that were found...” Pimâtan’s hand tightened in her lap and she looked out the window. “The bodies found, both humans and omnic, were disemboweled and they were all missing their heads.” She said tonelessly, “The omnics had their power cores torn out and the human was missing all of his vital organs. The detective has informed me that one of the most concerning parts of this is that all three bodies had bite marks on them.”

She allowed Genji and Zenyatta a few moments to digest this information.

“If I may, Master,” Genji spoke up now, “Why are you telling us this? Is there something you want us to do?” Zenyatta felt a burst of pride at the perceptiveness of his pupil.

Pimâtan tilted her head at Genji, as if she hadn’t expected to get to this part of the conversation so soon. 

“Yes.” She said finally.

“Do you wish us to find the missing people for you?” Zenyatta asked, quickly following Genji’s lead.

“No.”

“Then...?”

“The detective in charge of this case is highly capable, and I trust her to find the truth. What I was hoping from you, from Overwatch, is for you to attend the event and make sure nothing else goes wrong, either for my monks or my audience. The safety of my followers is extremely important to me, and having you around would ease some of my worries.

This is my first public speech as Shambali leader, after all, and I do want it to be memorable for all the right reasons.”

The thought of leaving the Shambali to fend for themselves never even occurred to him. Besides, he had already given his word.

They, Genji and Zenyatta, would switch to this hotel so they would be ready to attend the event the next day when the Shambali made their speech. This was easily done, as the two of them had travelled so sparsely that there was only one pair of pants between them and nothing else. Genji would burst out laughing later when Zenyatta brought it up, but then would fall into a flustered silence, as Genji occasionally did.

“One more thing, Zenyatta.” Pimâtan said as they got up to leave. “Before all of this happened, there was something important I wanted to talk to you about.”

Zenyatta paused, instinctively feeling uneasy at the tone of her voice.

“If your student would leave us for a moment?”

Genji stiffened at the clear dismissal, and Zenyatta was tempted to say that anything Pimâtan had to say to him, he could say to Genji. He didn’t, and Genji bowed and left, murmuring something about waiting outside.

The silence that seeped into the air in Genji’s absence was stifling, and Zenyatta tried to figure out what was making him feel so unsettled.

It all became clear when Pimâtan finally spoke.

“This is a highly personal matter for both of us, but it concerns Mondatta and the aftermath of his death. I know you two were close.” Zenyatta could feel his inner mechanisms clenching and he had to force himself to keep looking at her. “Close” was not a strong enough word to describe how he and Mondatta were. Had been. They had been one and they walked together in harmony, wherever that harmony would lead them. At least, that was how it was until Zenyatta started disagreeing with Mondatta more and more, creating a small rift between them.

His thoughts were immediately thrown out the window when the Shambali leader continued on, “You are aware that Mondatta originally intended you to take his place in the event of his demise? As head of the Shambali?”

Dread overtook him and suddenly he realized why she had been so keen on meeting him. Why she had been so accommodating despite Overwatch’s current reputation. He had walked neatly into a trap he couldn’t have imagined existed until this moment.

“I have always been aware that certain things were expected of me because of my status as Mondatta’s student, but after leaving the monastery, and the Shambali, I had thought that those expectations were discarded. I respected,” and loved, “Mondatta greatly, but I could not agree with him on this. To stand in front of a stadium of others and tell them what they must feel is not the path I can see myself taking.” This, he hopes, might discourage the turn this conversation had taken.

“And yet.”

The elder monk said, her dots glowing brightly and her face angled in a way that suggested that she was staring at him intently. “Mondatta believed that you were the right choice. He believed that you had it in you to do everything he could, and much, much more. The way he talked about you, even after you left us, would make one think that you had the power to move mountains and even single-handedly bring peace to us all if you put your mind to it.”

The trap snapped shut around him and he struggled weakly against it. Her words, soft and empathetic, screeched against his soul like barbed wire.

“You are the Shambali leader.” Zenyatta said finally. “I feel as if you are a good choice for this, so why-”

“Because if I have learned anything from Mondatta’s death, it is that we cannot be left without a successor again. If something were to happen to me, and something likely will, I do not want the Shambali to be leaderless again. We owe it to the world, and to every lost soul that could benefit from out words and the teachings of the Iris. We must keep ourselves whole and healthy, united and strong, if we are expected to bring harmony to the world. That is our duty as the Shambali.”

Successor.

“Tekhartha Zenyatta, you share Mondatta’s name and hold his most sacred teachings in your heart and soul. The world would benefit greatly if you rejoined the Shambali as both my student and my successor.”

“Successor.”

“Yes, but keep in mind that after Mondatta’s death, we have been limiting the number of visitors to the Monastery. I know you care for him greatly, but you will not be able to bring Genji with you if and when you rejoin us. It is best you not have any distractions anyway.” Her voice deepened with sympathy, correctly seeing and understanding Zenyatta’s silence. “Greatness and change must start with sacrifice. I hope you understand, Zenyatta, what I’m trying to do.

Please think on it.”

xXx

__  
**Somewhere else**  


A groan sounded right next to her, and she zeroed in on it. The sound was metallic, so was it Rosetta? Or maybe it was Ran? She wasn’t alone here, and that thought gave her the tiniest sliver of hope. 

“ _Namaste?_ ” She called out, relieved that feeling was finally starting to come back to her face, and that her voice was still working. But her eyes were still firmly closed. She was more helpless than she’d ever been in her life, and Fatima knew full well that calling attention to herself was a terrible idea, but she couldn’t stand to be like this any longer. The fear worked its way up her throat like bile, and for a moment she was sure that she was actually going to vomit. Maybe choking to death would be preferable to whatever was going on.

_Drip, drip_

_Squelch, squelch_

The new sound alarmed her, and she sucked in a breath at the heavy footsteps of something, something _huge_ , moving towards her. She gagged as the smell of rotting flesh forced its way into her nostrils and down her throat, and the stench was accompanied by a chill so deep that she felt it in her flesh and bones. It brought to mind the cold and merciless brutality of winter, the lifelessness of ice and snow. The woman shivered and coughed violently, shaking her head slightly side-to-side in a vain attempt to escape it.

She still couldn’t open her eyes.

Tears formed behind her stubbornly closed lids and fell down her face. Her heart was beating so fast that she knew she was in danger of some kind of heart failure. Quietly, she urged her body to do it. Shut her down. Whatever was here was something she didn’t want to see.

Please God, show her mercy.

God, apparently, could not see her through the evil of the cold that surrounded her. It blinded Him to her, and her to Him, and the only thing left was a voice. A voice so chilling it made her very bones feel brittle and fragile, and plunged her soul into an arctic winter. It spoke in a language she didn’t understand, and yet she knew the words. 

Her lungs were made of ice. It hurt to breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first started writing this chapter, I started spiralling off towards Pimâtan asking Genji and Zenyatta to investigate the murders, which lead our favourite omnic/cyborg pair to the detective mentioned in this chapter, and then going on an adventure to find the missing travellers. As interesting as this sounds, I wasn't prepared to write about a Genyatta crime drama, so I had to slice that entire bit out. We might actually meet that detective one day, I had fun writing what little I did on her.
> 
> I'm here on [Tumblr](http://ladytron47.tumblr.com/)


	4. Beware the Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something unseen lurks in the cold darkness in the tunnels below.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended up a lot longer than I expected it to.

When Genji looked out at the crushing sea of people, his first thought was that they all looked like a huge can of sardines. It wasn’t really a comment on the people themselves, only that he was amazed that so many had stuffed themselves into such a vast space. It almost made him regret never having heard a Shambali speech before, the excited energy coming from the crowd was intense, and the anticipation intoxicating.

Winston had agreed that they should watch the Shambali, and had debated whether or not he should send more agents. Tracer, Pharah, and Reinhardt perhaps, but Genji had told them that the Shambali had insisted that the two of them would suffice, for now, at least. He had the suspicion that Winston would send more people if they ended up spending more time with the Shambali.

He had spent most of last night patrolling the neighbourhood for any sign of their dangerous psychopath(s). Zenyatta had accompanied him for most of it, but though his body had been present at the time, Genji had the impression that his master’s mind was a thousand kilometres away. What exactly had Pimâtan said to him? Genji longed to reach out to his master and ask what was wrong, but Zenyatta would tell him when he was ready. He just had to be patient.

That didn’t mean that Genji wasn’t going to devote a good amount of emotional energy to fretting over him. He was a skilled ninja, so he was confident that he was subtle enough to keep his outward mother-henning to a minimum. 

“Genji, if you fret any harder I fear you are going to spontaneously combust, and where would I be then? A teacher without a pupil?” Zenyatta said, proving, once again, that nothing escaped him.

“Who said I am worrying?” He took the pair of pants Zenyatta was offering him. For no particular reason, the Shambali waned Genji to look the part, so it was decided that he should wear pants. As someone who was quite comfortable walking around without clothes, he rebelled against this injustice. At least he did until he realized that the pants being given to him were Zenyatta’s own. His master had earlier been swept away by a small wave of concentrated monk, only to be returned to a sad and lonely Genji a few minutes later. Genji had to admit that Zenyatta looked really good in the formal Shambali robes, but then again, Zenyatta had also looked really good in that godawful sweater and pants combination that Hana had bought him once. Genji strongly suspected that he was hopelessly bias when it came to how attractive the omnic monk was.

“I say you are worrying” Zenyatta’s tone was playfully patient as Genji pulled Zenyatta’s pants on. It was a good thing they were so roomy, Genji’s hips were considerably wider than Zenyatta’s. Treacherously, Genji’s mind crept back to Zenyatta’s earlier comment about there being only one pair of pants between them. Was he so hopeless that he was wildly reaching for anything that sounded like it could be something other than what it probably was? Probably. Yes. No. Maybe.

Their conversation kept on going despite Genji’s easily avoidable inner turmoil.

“Of course.”

“I will tell you later.”

“I know.”

“You look quite excellent in my pants.”

“Absolutely.”

Once again, Genji was left with the maddening uncertainty of his master’s “innocent” remarks. Was he reading an innuendo that wasn’t there, or did Zenyatta know exactly what he was saying? Unfortunately for Genji, it could go either way and the only way to know for certain was to suck it up and ask outright.

The Genji of old wouldn’t have hesitated. He would have gone right in for the kill, damn the consequences. The new, better, Genji was at peace with himself, but the trade-off was that he was now a romantic chicken-shit.

And so: Genji was not going to ask.

xXx

Zenyatta’s thoughts had been firmly on his conversation with Pimâtan over the past couple hours, so seeing Genji in his clothes was a welcome distraction. A distraction he had completely manufactured as the Shambli really couldn’t care less about what Genji wore or didn’t wear. Really, Zenyatta just wanted to see how his one article of clothing would look on his cyborg student.

“You look quite excellent in my pants.”

He said, embracing tranquillity as hard as he could. In truth, he wasn’t sure what his own intentions were when he made these comments. Sometimes he meant them the way they sounded, and sometimes he did not. He was going to have to commit to one thought or the other at some point, or else he was only going to hopelessly confuse them both.

For now he was content to let him and Genji be caught up in this uncertain spiralling they were doing. As long as they were spiralling _together_ , then he didn’t have any real complaints. Zenyatta’s own worry of disrupting the balance between them, or worse, breaking the trust Genji had in him if he was wrong about his or Genji’s feelings, always made him stop short of reaching out to Genji in a way his aching soul wanted. 

It would be nice to let Genji fill his thoughts for the rest of the day, but the entire situation with the Shambali required his full attention. 

He had not answered Pimâtan last night, but she still saw fit to put him in the Shambali robes as if she was sure his choice was made. What made it worse was that he was comfortable in the robes, and he fell easily back into the pattern. It was so easy to chat excitedly with the other monks, and to discuss the audience and speculate what their reactions would be. It reminded Zenyatta that the build-up to the speeches was always fun, if a bit hectic, even if he disapproved of the philosophies behind them. 

With Pimâtan, the victims, and the Shambali on Zenyatta’s mind, he hadn’t really considered the idea that more bad news might be flung his way. An hour before Pimâtan was supposed to make her speech, Genji had crept off to do another patrol, Pyth gently pulled him aside and held him firmly by the shoulders. “I know this is a bad time, but in reality, there is no good time for news like this.” She said, her voice soft “Has anyone told you about Sunyatta yet?”

“No?” Zenyatta said, dread quickly taking him as he braced himself for the worst. It didn’t matter, the truth hit him with the force of a bullet train.

“Last month he was going for a walk down the mountain path when the path he was on gave away and threw him into the ravine.” Pyth watched him carefully, “I’m sorry that I had to be the one to tell you, but I imagine everyone was just waiting for the right moment. He is with the Iris now, and there he can be at peace.” Other words were said, like details about the funeral and about the state of the body when they found it, spoken with the cool efficiency 

Zenyatta faintly recalled himself thanking Pyth before walking away so stiffly he could have been mistaken for an automaton. His clearest thought was that he had to find Genji.

Almost as if his thoughts summoned him, Genji appeared. Wordlessly they took the other’s hand and retreated into an empty room. 

“I have just been informed that Sunytta is gone.” He said, and Genji was quick to pull him into a hug. Sunyatta, of Egyptian origin, had been both a dear friend and a playful rival ever since their first days at the monastery together. Their first interaction had been a disagreement and a brief fight that the monks had to break up. The two of them had been fond of each other ever since.

The both of them had been surprisingly mischievous for a pair of aspiring monks, and it had been Sunyatta who had discovered how to sneak in and out of the temple at night to do... well, nothing really. There wasn’t much one could do up in a mountain, but it was the principle of the matter that was important. The best part had been that they had been caught every single time because Mondatta had his uncanny awareness of who went in and out of the temple. “Maybe he’s magical.” Sunyatta had suggested after one such adventure landed them with laundry duty. “It’s the only logical explanation for someone who knows everything.”

The last time he had talked to Sunyatta was two years ago. It was a brief conversation where lots of meaningless words were said and all the important parts went unspoken under the assumption that one day they would have the time to speak them. Already he could feel the doubts – He had been getting a lot of those lately-- plaguing his mind, demanding his attention. He promised himself that he would give these thoughts and feelings the full attention they deserved, and that he would mourn his friend properly later. For now, he allowed Genji’s strong arms and reassuring whispers to comfort him, and Zenyatta was grateful for him.

But they still had a job to do.

Xxx

Pimâtan stood on the stage flanked by four guards, her five monks and Zenyatta stood behind her, calm and serenely composed. All trace of their earlier energy and character were gone and in their place were the Shambali as the world saw them. As the world needed to see them. Pimatan was introduced, and she walked calmly out into the spotlight as the crowd cheered and shouted encouragements at her. The noise instantly wound down the moment she started speaking.

“Welcome. I see before me a gathering of omnics and humans, and never have I ever seen anything more beautiful. We have come far down the path of unity towards the light of harmony, and I look out upon you all with so much pride and hope for our future.”

Zenyatta could feel many stares from the audience land and stay on him when Pimâtan introduced the five monks an Zenyatta behind her. It wasn’t a widely known fact that he had been Mondatta’s student, but anyone who heard the name Tekhartha Zenyatta could easily put two and two together, as it was known that Mondatta _did_ have a student and that they shared a name. It could also be that Zenyatta’s name had its own weight among the omnic and human communities, he was very well known in some circles.

“-Mondatta’s vision did not die with him, as is proven by each and every one of you here. We hold his words in our hearts, and with them we will bring the change our souls and this world require.”

“ _Master._ ”

Zenyatta heard Genji’s voice and knew instantly that something was wrong. He quickly accessed their commlink to reply, hoping that no one noticed his slight fidgeting.

“ _Genji, what is wrong?_ ”

“ _I have found the bodies of two of the missing travellers. Someone had put them in an empty storage room far below the stadium, probably with the intention of putting them somewhere they could be seen and maybe cause a panic. I have already informed the guards of their location and they will likely be removed shortly_

_Ah, it is very cold all of a sudden.”_

There was a silence and Zenyatta carefully backed out of the line of monks, giving a quick binary response to their questioning looks. 

“ _Genji, respond._ ” 

“ _Master, there is something here.”_

“ _I am on my way._ ” 

“ _No, stay with the Sham-zzzttt._ ” 

__

xXx

“- _bali!_ ”

But it was no use, Genji knew immediately that communications had been cut off. A moment of dread took him and he knew that his master wasn’t going to remain behind if there was danger that needed fighting. He strongly considered going back to the surface to stop his master from coming down, but there was the matter of the presence he felt earlier, and how it was still definitely around.

The bodies he had found were in very poor condition and it made him feel vaguely ill to look at them. Genji had seen enough horrors in his lifetime that this didn’t shake him as terribly as it should. The poor guards who had responded to his initial call didn’t quite have his experience in these matters, and two of them had gone outside to retch. The three that remained behind didn’t speak or move, their gazes were fixed on the bodies before them. Genji couldn’t really blame them; the human loosely resembled a pile of grounded meat, while the omnic looked like scrap metal.

He heard something move in the dimly-lit hallway behind him. Then he heard several somethings, and he moved quickly out in the hall to find that both guards were now missing. Genji caught sight of something disappearing around the corner and decided he had to follow it. First thing’s first, however.

“Stay here.” He said to the three remaining guards, “When you see Master Zenyatta, tell him that I’ll be back shortly, and that he should return with the Shambali, I have this covered.” Without waiting for an affirmative from anyone, Genji bounded after this mystery.

Through the winding hallways he went, making no noise, yet the very silence itself felt loud and smothering to his hyperaware senses. The trail he was following was faint, made mostly of disturbed dust and the occasional item from one of the guards, like a button or shoe. Eventually he found himself standing at the mouth of a large hole in the wall and peering into the darkness beyond.

The hole didn’t look like it should be possible without machinery; it was about twenty feet long and seven feet tall. There was no way the security team missed this during their initial sweeps of the stadium, so logically this was made extremely recently. A chilling gust of air blew through the hole and Genji shivered. This must lead into the massive storm drains beneath Tokyo, and he didn’t feel entirely too keen on going through them. There was just something about being underground that made him uneasy.

Still, there wasn’t much point in waiting out here. Steeling himself, Genji walked into the darkness, his body tense and expectant. The darkness itself didn’t scare him; it never did. He was a born and bred ninja after all, and he was made to flow through the shadows like it was a part of him. It also helped that his cyborg enhancements helped him navigate through the darkness like it didn’t exist. Despite that, he almost tripped over the bodies of the two guards when he exited the tunnels. An examination of them told him that they were dead, but not eviscerated like the two travellers were. Actually, Genji couldn’t immediately tell what killed them, there was no obvious blood or markings that could be seen through their armour. Naturally he poked one of them, only to find that they were frozen solid, almost as if they had spent three days in a freezer.

That wasn’t possible. They were missing for ten minutes at the most!

Unnerved, Genji rose slowly and looked down the tunnel into the storm drains. He was confident in his own skills, but he was also neither reckless nor a fool; he would retreat and investigate this matter when he had backup.

“ _Is anyone there? Help! Please!_ ”

A faint voice echoed through the tunnels, and Genji started, so used to complete silence that any sound felt amplified. Knowing that there was no turning back now, Genji drew out his sword and moved swiftly towards the woman’s voice. If it was a trap, then he’d deal with it. If not, then this woman needed his help.

The tunnel opened up to a large room full of enormous pillars that stretched up into darkness. His first thought was that he was far deeper underground than he initially thought, and his second thought was _holy fuck, this is the second time tonight I’ve almost tripped over a dead body._

There were, in fact, several dead bodies, but unlike the guards and the travellers, these ones showed signs of battle. The room around them was littered with blood and bullet holes, and the floor and pillars had large claw marks carved into them. It was all the proof he needed that whatever these men and women had fought hadn’t been anything remotely human. He had suspected as much, but to see the evidence himself made the truth of it much grimmer.

These were Talon soldiers, Genji could tell that much going by their familiar armour. Now what were they doing down here? Was Talon here for the Shambali? It was possible, but it seemed as though they were here for whatever had killed those two travellers. Unless Talon had something to do with those travellers, then that was a different matter altogether.

Genji’s foot bumped against something on the ground. It wasn’t another dead body, so Genji was immediately thankful for that, but it was something that was, in many respects, much, much worse: a horribly familiar shotgun.

_Reaper._

This situation just got more complicated and dangerous, not to mention that he had lost whatever he had been chasing and he hadn’t heard the woman’s voice again since he entered the tunnels. He was going to give the room a quick look-around then he was going to go back to the surface. This was _definitely_ not something he should be handling on his own.

xXx

Zenyatta had no intention of staying anywhere and the moment he was off the stage and out of sight, he flowed swiftly into his battlestance. His legs folded beneath him as he hovered, and his orbs sprung to life, humming with his own energy. It was in times like this when he was prepared for battle that he could feel the Iris so keenly, that any moment he could either save a life or end it completely. It was a balance between life and death, harmony and discord, that Zenyatta had mastered in a way no other Shambali monk would understand.

Mondatta would not have approved. He would have said that a true connection to the Iris comes from patience, meditation, and serenity. Zenyatta had long since decided that he was not Mondatta, and he never would be, and that he would find his own way to peace. For even though Zenyatta was a monk first and foremost, deep deep within him lay the spirit of a warrior.

Genji needed him and Zenyatta wasn’t going to run and hide while his student was in danger.

Following the last known signal that Genji had given off, Zenyatta descended through the stairwell. His awareness was spread out as far as it would go, and his instruments told him that it was getting colder the further down he went.

“Genji?” He made no outward sound as he tried the commlink again, to no avail. Had he not been in this moment of combat-ready tranquillity, then he would have been turning himself inside out with worry over the unknown fate of his pupil. Currently he only felt a twinge of concern as he floated silently down the white concrete hallway. Genji was the most capable person Zenyatta knew; he was okay.

Zenyatta spotted the lit open door before he heard the pained groan from within. His sensors told him that someone, only one someone, was alive, though their vitals were very faint. Zenyatta approached the room cautiously.

Inside were three guards, two recently dead, and two headless, disemboweled bodies of the missing travellers. One omnic and one human. Zenyatta spared the dead a single glance before focusing his attention on the one living soul in this butcher’s room.

The guard was shivering violently, her eyes wide and empty as she stared unblinking at the wall, at the human-shaped blood stains that had come from her two unfortunate comrades. Zenyatta’s sensors told him that this woman’s core body temperature was dangerously low, and that she was suffering from hypothermia and extreme frost bite on a hand and a foot despite her heavy gear.

Zenyatta placed his orb of harmony on her, allowing its golden to run up and down her body, raising her body temperature, slowly of course, and bringing back some colour back into pale face. Zenyatta knew that it wasn’t wise to move her, but he didn’t want her to gain awareness while in such a gruesome room. The smell of blood and body fluids that came from the recently disemboweled guards was very overpowering.

The guard was carried into another room and Zenyatta stayed with her long enough to make absolutely sure that she’d survive without him for a little while. He attempted to use her radio to contact the others above, but he only got static. As with Genji, the communication had been cut off.

He should stay with her, but he needed to go find Genji. Which he set out to do after making sure she was stable and closed the door behind him.

While his first impulse was to go floating down the hallway in search of his lost student, he made himself go back into the room. The grim sight did nothing to shake his tranquillity, though his hands did tighten against each other.

Each victim looked like they had been attacked by an abnormally large animal. Three of the four bodies had been messily shredded, and their heads were missing. The entrails coming from the guards were only half accounted for, and Zenyatta uneasily wondered where the missing bits had gone to. The lone omnic wasn’t in any better condition, their power core had been ripped from their body and their limbs were in grotesque angles, as if someone had tried to twist them off. What most caught his attention was the state of the human traveller. He had been eviscerated too but his wounds were different. It was as if something with much smaller claws had torn into him, and a much smaller mouth had chewed at the stump where the head had once been.

Zenyatta shuddered and looked away.

A sound. A movement down the hall opposite from where Zenyatta had come from. Knowing that it was not Genji, Zenyatta moved forward carefully through the winding white hallways. 

Another sound, this time far easier to identify. It was like a gust of dramatically sinister wind. Raising his hands in preparation for battle, Zenyatta turned the corner...

...and ran face-to-face with none other than Reaper.

The darkly-clothed and masked Talon operative pointed his shotguns at the omnic monk and Zenyatta stopped half a breath from throwing an orb straight at his enemy’s face. He only paused because Reaper did first. He got the impression that this encounter was extremely unexpected for the both of them.

The silence between them was cold and perhaps far more awkward than two enemies meeting in the middle of a hallway should warrant. It was as if they had both walked into something they shouldn’t have seen, and neither of them knew how to react. Maybe it was mostly awkward, the cold came naturally with the environment.

“Reaper.” Zenyatta decided to break the ice by starting up a pleasant and civil conversation. “I suppose it is too much to hope that you will answer if I ask you what you are doing here?”

For a moment, Zenyatta wasn’t sure if he was going to answer.

“Not for you, that’s for sure.” Reaper growled, “You shouldn’t be here.”

The omnic monk hummed thoughtfully. “You are aware that you are below the stadium the Shambali are giving a speech in? Ah, I see that you are not. If you are not here for assassination, then I assume you are here because-”

Zenyatta had a nanosecond to register the twin clicks from Reaper’s shotgun before a small explosion tore at the space he had been a moment earlier. Dodging a shotgun blast at such a short range was generally difficult, but Zenyatta thanked the Iris that he had the time to react when he did. Reaper raised his shotguns for another assault, but was solidly hit in the face with a discord orb, and he leapt backwards a few steps, hissing and swatting at the purple orb hovering over his shoulder. While the sphere brought up every painful memory and agonizing thought, Zenyatta launched a volley of orbs that drove the Talon agent back a few steps.

This was hardly the first time Zenyatta had thrown this orb at Reaper though, and his opponent recovered swiftly enough to point both shotguns directly at Zenyatta, who had no room to dodge, and the monk could see immediately that Reaper would not miss this time. The first blast took off his right arm, and the second one tore off his shoulder and chest dangerously close to his power core. The pain was immediate and terrible, but Zenyatta focused everything he had on his one remaining hand so he could continue pelting Reaper with orb after orb. 

He had sensed from the moment that Reaper had pointed his gun at him that the Talon agent had been in a battle not long before, and that his overall health was down. As long as he could keep up the attack he could drive Reaper away, hopefully before he himself succumbed to his wounds.

His opponent raised his shotguns for one last attack and Zenyatta chose that moment to pass into the Iris, his golden arms sprouted from his back and within his own golden aura of harmony and healing, he was completely and utterly at pace with the universe. Reaper could do no harm to him, and he knew it. Rather than sit around and wait for Zenyatta’s transcendence to finish, he dissolved into a dark cloud of smoke and speed swiftly away. Zenyatta chose not to pursue.

As his transcendence ran its course, Zenyatta allowed his feet to touch the floor once again, and he backed away until he could lean heavily against the wall. Even though his pain was mostly gone, the exhaustion from his brief battle and the loss of most of the right side of his chest momentarily weighed down on him. He could only imagine how Genji was going to react. Through the haze, he realized that the top half of his robes had been torn to shreds, while the bottom half was stained with blood from carrying the guard to safety. He made a mental note to apologize to Cah, as it was her extra Shambali robes that he had ruined. As he looked down at himself, he couldn’t help but appreciate the symbolism his current state carried. A former Shambali monk in torn and bloodstained Shambali finery, yet he regretted none of it.

Once again, Zenyatta felt that he had to go find Genji. 

Forcing himself back into his battlestance, he floated down to the hallway he had seen Reaper go down and considered his best course of action. If he was smart, and he usually was, he would turn around and leave, trusting that Genji could handle himself better than a one-armed monk could. However, Zenyatta couldn’t bear the thought of leaving without knowing whether his student was well or not.

The universe showed one ounce of kindness and Zenyatta could feel whatever was blocking communication vanish. 

“ _-yatta if you can hear me please respond!_ ”

He sighed with relief at the panicked sounds of his student’s voice. Finally, something he was used to hearing.

“ _Genji, I am so relieved to hear from you._ ”

“ _Master! Thank god, I was not sure where you were! I encountered something I could not see downstairs, and I followed it through a hole in the wall and ended up losing it down in the tunnels below the city. I manage to contact the Shambali, only to learn that you are not with them. Please tell me that you are well and I will come and get you._ ”

Zenyatta took a moment to think of how he should answer the question. Honesty. Yes, honesty would do best here.

“ _I wish I could say that I am well, but unfortunately that would be a lie. I am, however, alive, and after my encounter with Reaper, I feel that I am very accomplished today._ ”

“ _Reaper._ ”

“ _I am down by the bodies, Genji, and one of the guards needs medical attention. And... try not to panic when you see me, I am in very bad shape._ ”

xXx

**  
_Later_  
**

Genji did end up panicking when he saw Zenyatta hovering above the guard with a quarter of his body missing. He had all but scooped his Master out of the air and carried him bridal style up the stairs and to the Shambali, allowing the guard to be taken care of by the paramedics. No amount of protests and assurances could convince Genji to put him down, and perhaps it was Genji carrying a bloodstained and torn-apart Zenyatta into the room that caused the monks to panic too. The speech was over by now, and that gave everyone plenty of time to get upset over Zenyatta.

Zenyatta endured them all with as much patience as he could muster. He had to remind himself that if it had been Genji who had been brought to him with parts of him missing, he would have been very upset too. Still, he wasn’t dead and Reaper’s shotguns hadn’t hit anything vital, so it was a wound easily recovered from with the right tools, which the Shambali had. Soh stayed behind while the other monks went to their dinner parties and mercifully refrained from lecturing him about the extent of his injuries.

“I can’t believe you took on a Talon agent all by yourself.” Cah said much, much later with an air of awestruck reverence. She had taken the loss of her robe very well, all things considered. Zenyatta flexed his replacement arm and gently inspected his newly put together chestplate. It had only taken a few hours, and he was already back to his usual condition. Genji had stayed with him this entire time, worryingly silent through it all. They were going to have to talk later.

“I wish I could have seen it.” Toa said enviously, “It occurs to me that I have never seen you in battle, Master Zenyatta. It’s funny, because that’s what some of the older models like Master Flintlocke and Master Sender always complain about when they talk about you. Ah, I wish I could do what you can do.”

“And you act like it was nothing!” Soh said, following Cah in her awestruck reverence, “If I had seen what you had seen, I think I would have fainted dead away! I guess this is why you are in Overwatch and we are not.”

“I definitely feel better that you’ll be staying with us for a while.” Pyth added, “You and Genji will make any monster stop in its tracks, I just know it.”

“Still,” Batu said, his deep voice silencing the others. Zenyatta could feel the impending lecture and braced himself. “Going in alone after your student while knowing that an unknown creature was on the loose was foolhardy and reckless. It was brave and admirable, yes, but such disregard for your own safety should not be encouraged, even if such an action saved the life of that one guard.”

“I agree.”

Zenyatta turned to stare at Genji, who had unexpectedly chosen to speak up _against_ him. Was he to be lectured by his student too?

“I was worried for you.” Zenyatta said, his voice a couple octaves softer than usual, his hurt evident to those who knew him well enough to see it. Genji knew him well enough and looked guiltily away. “I could not leave you there alone. I did what I had to do, and I have no regrets about how it turned out.”

This earned a few noises of admiration from Cah and Soh.

“Mondatta would have been very disappointed.” Batu said disapprovingly, and Zenyatta had to fight against his natural urge to cringe at those words. It was painful to know how much those words still hurt him, even years after leaving the Shambali. Batu looked at him and his voice softened, “But he would have understood. He knew you better than anyone, Zenyatta.” Batu sighed and leaned forward to and put his hands on the table between them all. “Seeing first hand what you have been up to worries me greatly, Little Zen.” He said, using a brotherly nickname Zenyatta hadn’t heard in many years, “This life you have chosen, full of danger and horror, is it truly right for you? I now worry that this way of living may change you into something we will no longer recognize. I would feel better if you took Pimâtan up on her offer and came back to us. With us, you will be safe and your soul protected. With us, you belong.”

He sensed Genji looking at him, and Zenyatta looked at him too, silently telling him that he would explain later. 

“You said earlier that you accepted the path I had taken.” Zenyatta said, keeping his voice steady despite the rising anger and hurt.

“That was before I knew how dangerous this path was. How can I sleep knowing that my little brother is out there doing battle with all the evils of the world, like it is his fate to do?”

“I think.” Zenyatta said, standing up suddenly, “that it is time for me to rest. Goodnight Batu. Everyone.”

Without waiting for Genji, Zenyatta turned around and pulled open the door and walking out into the hallway. He could feel Genji following close behind, but he was too caught up in his own swirl of thoughts and emotions to properly acknowledge him. There was also the fact that Genji had not stood up for him as he had expected him to.

Somewhat pettily, he was glad this hotel room had two separate beds this time.

The silence between them was thick and full of emotion as they entered their room. Zenyatta walked over to his bed and sat down on it with his back facing Genji, and made a show of easing himself into meditation. 

“ _Your soul is so restless. So ready to be in conflict with the injustices around you._ ” Mondatta had once said, “ _You need not take on the world’s horrors onto your shoulders just because you can. There are other ways of dealing with them, Zenyatta. Slower ways, yes, but true change comes with patience, and not harsh actions and harsher retribution. Meditate on that, my student._ ”

Batu was right. Mondatta would have been disappointed.

Genji had not bothered to pretend that he was busy with anything else, and chose to sit on his own bed and watch Zenyatta meditate, deep in thought himself.

The silence between them stretched on and on. 

It was Zenyatta who broke it.

“Master Pimâtan wants me to rejoin the Shambali as her student and eventual successor.” It didn’t sound any better when said out loud, and Zenyatta could only feel uncertainty at his own words. “And it would appear that Batu wants me to too. I have not given either of them an answer.”

He gave Genji time to think about all the implications of this choice. Zenyatta would have to leave Overwatch, leave all the people he had come to care about behind. Overwatch was just as much his family, more so in some ways, than the Shambali monks were. What’s worse was that Pimâtan said that she expected Genji to remain behind with Overwatch, that he would not have a place with Shambali in what they were doing. It was this one thing that made Zenyatta firmly want to decline the offer. Genji didn’t know that, however, and he couldn’t bring himself to voice such a terrible idea. 

“Will you?” There was a lot more his student wanted to say, but he was keeping it to himself. 

“No. I will stay with you Genji, that is where I truly belong.”

This admission would have ordinarily comfort and delight his friend, but Genji was worryingly quiet again. 

“About what Master Batu said,” He said slowly, and Zenyatta could feel his heart fall sharply at the cautious tone in his voice, “About you being safer with the Shambali-”

“Genji.”

“Master-”

Any other day, any other time, Zenyatta would take the time to patiently give his answers and make his beloved student understand in the clearest and gentlest way possible. The last few days have been extremely trying on his inner peace, and he felt like his wiring had frayed down to nothing, his processors all slow and sluggish. He was not feeling like himself, and he should stop the conversation so they could talk about this properly when he was feeling better. The last thing he wanted was to say something that he could never take back.

“Genji, I appreciate your concern, but I do not feel like pursuing this topic any further right now. Please.” He added in a kinder tone to let Genji know that he was not truly upset or angry with him, just very, very tired. “We will discuss this another time.”

“Yes, Master Zenyatta.”

XxX

_Another time_

Suddenly, her body was free and she slumped to the wet and disgustingly lumpy ground. Her eyes were still closed, frozen shut now, and she felt something drop in front of her. 

The voice continued to talk to her, and she listened intently. 

Blindly, she crawled towards the object placed before her. _Food_. She was told it was food, and she needed to eat. How long had it been since she last ate? Suddenly, she felt famished. Like she had gone an entire lifetime without eating, and her next bite would be her salvation, a paradise away from this awful place.

The smell wasn’t so terrible anymore.

When she got to the food, she suddenly wasn’t sure how to eat it. She listened again as the voice, fondly, like a mother cat showing her kittens how to eat a mouse, told her how to do it. She nodded eagerly, to show she understood, and sank her fingers, into it and yanked out something long and deliciously warm. There was a sound, a scream from somewhere, but she didn’t register it. This was warm. Finally, her insides were becoming warm and the desperate hunger was slowly going away.

She kept on eating, as the voice told her to. It watched her feed, pleased and proud of her in that strange, motherly way. Her mind drifted back home, back to her dog, her mother, her father, and her two obnoxious and charming siblings. Fatima allowed her mind to sink into the memories, the good ones, while she pulled and ripped at the food. Her graduation, the dance competition, the time her siblings got caught in a tree and she had to single-handedly scale it to get them down. Some part of her, the last sane part, kept praying to God. She never went to any church or mosque, but suddenly she wished she had. Maybe if she had devoted more time to Him, He would have saved her from this.

Her soul was ice, she could feel something dark working its way through her. She had reached and passed the point where salvation of her immortal soul was impossible. Fatima, or the creature that had once been Fatima, could not be saved.

What’s worse was how her body felt. The skin on her arms tingled and prickled uncomfortably, like there was something pressing up against the underside of her flesh, wanting to rip loose. Her brain felt like it was expanding and pressing painfully against the inside of her skull, and her bones... _oh her bones_.

_Drip, drip._

At last, she could feel her lids loosening, and she was able to open them. There was very little light in the cave they were in, but it was enough for her to see what was before her. Her eyes, bloodshot to the point where the whites were almost entirely red, widened and her bloodied mouth fell open in a long, piecing, drawn-out scream.

Thunder and rain crashed and roared overhead, and a laugh, as cold as death itself, echoed through the underground tunnels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's nothing like having family guilt-trip you on your life choices, yes? Even omnics aren't immune to this particular reality. 
> 
> Anyway
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> Winston and Mei decide to investigate the unnatural and deadly storms occurring around the world. One lead will take them into the mountains of Northern Canada where only disaster awaits them. Meanwhile, Soldier: 76 and his team are sent to investigate a series of missing ships occurring within the Pacific. One such ship in Hawaiian waters tells a terrible tale that they must piece together before it's too late.
> 
> How are they all connected? What secret is Winston hiding? Stay tuned and find out!


	5. Monkeying Around (Interlude 1/2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sleep deprived Winston and Mei chat with each other about science things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know shit about weather science so I compensated by being as vague as possible.

**Watchpoint: Gibraltar**

This had to be the third straight day in a row that Winston had gone without sleep. At this point he was almost sure that Lúcio’s humorous comment about him having drunk his weight in coffee wasn’t that much of an exaggeration. Everytime Winston was ready to sleep, or, at least, was ready to consider it, something always came up and he had to push trivial things aside to take care of them. 

Like the entire issue with the Shambali. Some sort of monster had been stalking and killing Shambali followers and Talon was involved somehow, yet after Zenyatta’s report on Reaper, Winston was sceptical about the idea that Talon was responsible. Being involved and being responsible for violent evisceration of several humans and omnics weren’t the same thing, though both were concerning. 

All of this was worth a few headaches.

He was confident that Zenyatta and Genji had it covered, but decided to send some reinforcements just in case. Upon hearing that the Shambali were heading to Numbani, Winston decided that, Reinhardt, Hanzo, Angela, and Jesse would be more than enough to deal with this mysterious threat.

The other pressing issue was the string of attacks being reported throughout the Pacific Ocean. They were small ships at first, ships that belonged to crime and drug lords, so nothing that required too much attention. The attacks eventually got bigger and more mysterious when a large Japanese fishing ship went missing, only to be found along the coast of Australia. Every living person on the ship had been unaccounted for, and the ship itself was in such bad shape that it had been very difficult to figure out what had happened to it. At least, that’s what Winston read on the Australian reports on the matter.

When a recently missing cruise ship was discovered a short while later, Winston wasted no time at all sending a team to go check it out before the Hawaiian authorities found it and carted it off. For this mission, he chose Jack, Hana, Lúcio, Satya, Torbjorn, and Zarya to investigate, which left him with Ana, Lena, Jamison, Roadhog, Mei, Bastion, Fareeha, and himself should either of the two missions need reinforcements or another issue arose. 

He should sleep, but what if he went over everything connected to both of those missions instead? Sleep can happen tomorrow.

Winston was so preoccupied with his work that he didn’t notice his lab door open, nor did he notice his visitor until he felt a gentle tapping on his arm. Startled, the gorilla looked down under his arm at the shy, but smiling, face of Mei-Ling Zhou. She was holding a tray with a very large jug of coffee and a pile of bananas carefully arranged on a plate.

“I figured you would need some more, with all the work you’ve been doing lately.” She said, placing it in front of him. Winston couldn’t help but notice that she looked really tired too and he wondered if maybe she had pulled a few all-nighters herself. It was one of the many activities they both took part in that they’ve bonded over. “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but Ana put a considerable amount of sleep drugs in your coffee and some more in those bananas. Also she wants me to tell you that if you don’t go to bed in the next fifteen minutes she’s going to come down here and dart the both of us.” Which answered Winston’s unspoken question about whether or not Mei had pulled an all-nighter or two.

Winston snorted, a sound that used to alarm his friend forever ago, and picked up the giant drug-laced jug of coffee. “I suppose mother knows best.” He said dryly, “I’ll drink this as soon as I’m done examining these weather patterns. In fact, it’s a good thing you’re here, I was wondering what you thought about those graphs I sent you.” Mei instantly perked up, as he hoped she would. An excited and enthusiastic Mei was a fun Mei to be around, especially if you were a scientist such as himself.

“Ah! Yes I have! They are very unusual.” She pulled out a data slug from her pocket and walked over to Winston’s computer to plug it in. Several different maps popped up and Mei pulled a satellite map of Japan into view, more specifically a map of Tokyo from a few days ago. “As you know, storms don’t usually just pop into existence, especially if there’s no appropriate conditions for one to form. It was supposed to be a nice few nights in Tokyo, but then look at this!” Excited, she sped the satellite image up a few frames and they watched as a dark green spot form suddenly over the city. “See? Look how it spreads, like a flower! It’s completely unnatural. This storm stays over Tokyo for a few hours before completely dispersing.” She flipped to a the morning after, “and look, it’s like it never existed. It’s so strange. I’ve been scanning through weather maps from the past few months and I’ve found something super interesting. Well, I mean more interesting than it being an unnatural freak storm, but you know those missing ships we’re investigating now? Each of them were proceeded with a freak storm extremely like this one. I do not know if that can be called a coincidence. Not only that, but each time the storm appears over the land, there’s always a flurry of missing person reports. There are some people in online forums who think that the storms are cursed.”

“Hmm...” Winston considered this while gazing thoughtfully at Mei’s maps. “If I were to hazard a completely logical guess, I would say that it sounds like a weather machine of some kind. I know that the Vishkar Corporation was creating some sort of climate control devices to help stabilize the environmental ecosystems in India, but from what I’ve read of them, they’re nothing like what we’re experiencing here. Perhaps I’ll ask Satya about it when she gets back. There’s also an old Overwatch base in Northern Canada that I think merits some investigation.”

“Ooooh.” Mei said, her eyes bright, “I was just thinking about that! That old place in the Yukon was experimenting with weather technology before it was decommissioned. It’s been such a long time that I don’t know if there would be anything left there, but it’s definitely worth a try.”

“Winston, I have tried to access the Yukon base, but was unable to.” Athena said, her voice as cool and collected as always, “It would seem that power has been activated very recently and I suspect that the base is currently in use. However, I cannot access the network or get any readings on the base itself.”

“Ah, it would seem that we must investigate this for sure. I will gather together a team and we’ll be on our-”

 _Thwip, thwip_.

A painfully familiar sound echoed through the room and Winston wobbled before falling forward onto his desk. He was out cold before his face hit the surface.

Xxx

Winston woke up a few hours later and his first thought was that he felt like crap. It had less to do with being forced to sleep, though he figured that was a factor, and more to do with a certain AI saying his name over and over again like a persistent toddler. Really, now that he’s slept a few hours he found that he could easily sleep a few more. Besides, this blanket and pillow he woke up with, undoubtedly from Ana, were very comfortable, and it would be a shame to deny them their intended purpose.

“Ugh. Athena, what is it? And how long was I out?” Winston grumbled, raising his head off the pillows and pulling the blanket, a large quilted thing with geometric flower designs, tighter around his shoulders. Blearily he decided he should just gather his things and make his way over to his room. He was definitely in need of a good, long sleep.

“You have been unconscious for 4 hours, 34 minutes, and 32 seconds. There is an incoming transmission that I think will need your full attention.”

Winston groaned and sat up, gently putting the pillow aside so he could better access his computer

“Ugh. Who’s it from?”

“Unknown. I do know _where_ it is from, however.”

“And?”

“The transmission is heavily encrypted and the signal originates from the moon.”

Winston felt his blood freeze, and suddenly it was a lot easier to stay awake as a burst of fear and adrenaline surges through his body. Faint images, sounds, smells, and feelings filter through to him and he immediately tried to shut them out. The moon wasn’t his problem anymore. It’s been fifteen years. He had left that behind him when he ran away to a safer place. It wasn’t his home, and the people- no, the _monsters_ \- there weren’t his family.

He should ignore it. By ignoring it he would be succeeding at leaving this part of him behind. He had enough problems already.

But...

“Accept the transmission.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually really excited to start writing parasite things, and so I shall. I'll be easing into it slowly, but rest assured, dear readers, that when we finally rejoin our heroes we'll be heading to ocean and seeing what Soldier: 76 and his crew are doing.


	6. Chatlog 1 (Interlude 2/2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's everyone else up to?

` _Correspondence between [Symmetra] and [Reinhardt], October 25th, 2076_ `

` [Sym] It is a weakness that might get exploited. I must overcome it.`

`[Rein] Of course! But Keep in mind that being afraid of something isn’t a weakness! I for example am absolutely terrified of bees! Not because i am allergic but because i got stung in the eye when i was a child! And no one in my life has ever called ME weak! :DDD`

`you are much too hard on yourself satya`

`[Sym] I have high expectations for myself.`

`[Rein] You do! That is a good and wonderful thing, but there is such a thing as pushing yourself too hard! Trust me, everyone tells me that i push myself too hard all the time so perhaps i should not be lecturing you on this! But I will anyway because it needs to be said`

`no one would think any less of you for being afraid of the water. It is a perfectly valid fear! Millions of people are afraid of water! The ocean is a big place!`

`[Sym] They will think less of me for being afraid of water and then accepting a mission that takes me out into the ocean. I will find a way to deal with it, as I have always done.`

`[Rein] Ah Satya. You are no longer alone! You have us! Me especially. Please, stay safe, and at least let someone there know of your fear just in case you get tossed overboard. I would hate to have one of my favourite people lost to the depths.`

`[Sym] I will do that.`

`[Rein] Excellent! When you get home, we will make some of that tasty rava keshi together! I know how much you like those. I’ll ask Mako to do some shopping for us so it can be ready when we get back.`

`[Sym] Yes.`

`[Rein] I should go! The three little monks want to know if I can powerlift them all at the same time, and I would hate to disappoint them! Goodbye my friend!`

`[Sym] Goodbye.`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Zenyatta] and [Torbjorn], October 25th, 2076_`

` [Torb] Are you absolutely sure that all your circuits are in the right places?`

`[Zen] Quite sure, actually.`

`[Torb] You once blew up a toaster trying to fix it so sorry if i don’t take your word for it`

`[Zen] The Shambali monks know what they are doing. Or, at least, Soh does. They were a mechanic before they became a monk.`

`[Torb] They’d better! If I come back and find out that they missed an important conductor or messed around with your processor then im gonna be having words with em all. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from you, it’s that you machines can be just as useless around other machines as humans are.`

`[Zen] That is, unfortunately, true.`

`[Torb] Anyway, I’ll be giving you a full checkup when I get back, and dontcha even try to weasel your way out of it!`

`[Zen] I would never.`

`[Torb] “I would never” he says after trying to get out of the past two tune-ups. You’d think for a monk or whatever you’d be better at staying still for a few hours while I made sure you were functional. Also you love straining your power conductors for your little orbs during every single mission. I plan on giving you an upgrade for that sometime`

`[Zen] I appreciate what you do for me Torbjörn.`

`[Torb] You’d better. `

`[Zen] And I will return to you with the spoils of our mission: Numbani scotch.`

`[Torb] Ha! You do know the right way into my heart!`

`It’s not enough to weasel your way out of a tune-up, however.`

`[Zen] Foiled again.`

`Hm I hear a commotion in the room next to us. I wonder what Reinhardt is up to. I will speak to you later, my friend.`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Mercy] and [Pharah], October 23rd, 2076_`

` [Mer] You should talk to her.`

`[Pha] I know.`

`[Mer] It’s been months, and I almost never see you two talk.`

`[Pha] I’m not angry at her. Or even upset. I understand, and that is the worst part. I understand why she did what she did, and why she left me.`

`Part of me wants things to go back to the way things were, but the way things were weren’t that great. What am I supposed to do?`

`[Mer] Talk to her.`

`[Pha] Winston and Jesse both accepted her back into their lives without issue. They all did, but I cannot, for some reason. Does that mean there was something wrong with me?`

`Ah, these are useless thoughts, but...`

`[Mer] I understand. She loves you very, very much Fareeha, that much is clear, but I think she might be a bit worried about you, so that’s why she keeps her distance. You’ve had a lot of time to get used to each other, but I know that you need to share words. If you need me to approach her and set something up then I’d be happy to.`

`[Pha] I appreciate it, Angela, but this is something I must do myself. I may need some emotional support afterwards though.`

`[Mer] Movies, then?`

`[Pha] Anything but romantic comedies.`

`[Mer] Done.`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Unknown] and [Unknown], October 24th, 2076_`

` [UK1] I appreciate you reaching out to me`

`[UK2] It took everything I had.`

`[UK1] I understand how dangerous this is for you, and I promise I will do everything in my power to help.`

`[UK2] Why?`

`[UK1] Because it is the right thing to do.`

`[UK2] Even after what I’ve done?`

`[UK1] Even then. I forgive you and so would he.`

`[UK2] That sounds too easy.`

`[UK1] The path you are on is anything but easy. You will be challenged, hurt, and torn apart down to the core of your very being. However, I believe with all my heart that you can do this, and I will be with you to guide you through it. I want you to meet me at this location, and there we can start our journey together. `

`I will be waiting.`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Tracer] and [McCree], October 24th, 2076_`

` [Tra] PLEASE`

`PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE`

`[McC] Nah`

`[Tra] come ON Jesse please switch places with me! This is important!`

`[McC] aint no way im flying upwards into the frozen canadian wastelands. I respect myself a bit better than that`

`[Tra] bullshit, you just want to cozy up with hanzo and hope he gives you the time of day`

`[McC] Dang lena where’d those teeth and claws come from? `

`Does it really matter that much to you?`

`[Tra] Yes! It matters a lot!`

`I need to be there. I want to help protect them. It’s the least I can do.`

`[McC] You don’t owe them Shambali folks anything? Why are you acting like you have some kinda life debt with them? o.o`

`[Tra] Jesse, please! I need this.`

`[McC] Lena...`

`[Tra] i have to apologize to them in person. I want to meet Pimâtan and apologize to her :(`

`[McC] bout what?`

`[Tra] everything`

`ugh nvm i’ll go ask someone else`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Ana Amari] and [Soldier: 76], October 25th, 2076_`

` [Ana] So, about the girl.`

`[S76] Hana? What about her?`

`[Ana] I heard through the grapevine that she called u dad once. that’s so cute, Jesse even caught it on video.`

`[S76] Really? You’re going to give me grief on that? Do I need to remind you that you have a gorilla and a cowboy occasionally call you “mama ana”? At least mine is normal.`

`[Ana] I came here to tease you and I’m feeling very attacked right now.`

`Anyway, don’t deflect away from my original mocking comment.`

`[S76] She’s a good kid.`

`[Ana] Obviously`

`[S76] In the mission before this one she detonated her mech and took down an enemy warehouse all by herself. Practically completed the mission all on her own. If that’s not impressive, then I don’t know what is. Not just that, but her aim with her sidearm is getting better. She’ll be giving McCree a run for his money before long.`

`[Ana] Mhm`

`[S76] She’s been having McCree teach her how to speak Spanish because she says that since they go all over the place, it’d be beneficial to know as many languages as possible. As far as I know she’s coming along pretty well. Smart girl.`

`[Ana] Uh huh`

`[S76] I’ve also been encouraging her to consider taking online University classes, something for her to do between missions. Having a little extra education never hurt anyone.`

`[Ana] This is adorable.`

`[S76] Whatever.`

`Anyway, we’re approaching the ship, so I have to go.`

`[Ana] I’d say “don’t die”, but everyone dies eventually. So I guess I’ll say “don’t die too soon, I’m somewhat fond of you.”`

`[S76] Thanks.`

`[Ana] Also don’t trust that pirate`

`[S76] She’s not a pirate.`

`[Ana] She’s absolutely a pirate????`

`[S76] She’s not a pirate.`

`[Ana] I’m bringing Reinhardt in here. He’ll tell you that she’s absolutely a pirate.`

` **[Rein] Has Entered the Room** `

` [Ana] Reinhardt, tell this joker that Shih is a pirate.`

`[Rein] Shih? Ha! What a joke!! shih isn’t a pirate, anyone can see that`

`[Ana] ??????`

`SHE’S A PIRATE`

`SHE EVEN DRESSES LIKE ONE`

`[Rein] She’s a very delightful woman and I very much enjoy her company.`

`[S76] It’s true. She’s not a pirate any more than McCree is an actual cowboy`

` **[Torb] Has Entered the Room** `

` [Torb] IM BUSY`

`[Ana] SHIH IS A PIRATE`

`[Torb] ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?`

`[Ana] SHE HAS A BOUNTY ON HER HEAD IN FOUR COUNTRIES`

`[S76] And you have a bounty on your head in seven. What’s your point`

`[Ana] You know what? I don’t need this. I have my own mission 2 get 2. dont come crying to me when she ditches you out there in the ocean`

` **[Ana] Has Left the Room** `

`

xXx

`

` _Correspondence between [Tracer] and [Mercy], October 24th, 2076_ `

` [Tra] angela, please, let me switch places with you you can be with Fareeha and we’ll all be happy`

`[Mer] I might be inclined to agree, but why?`

`[Tra] i just want to ok???`

`[Mer] Then no. `

`[Tra] PLEAAAAAAAAASEEEE`

`[Mer] We are setting out to join the Shambali tomorrow morning, so I suggest you have a stronger argument than that.`

`[Tra] its super important to me i have to go and meet them`

`i can’t explain why  
please`

`[Mer] I’m sorry Lena...`

`[Tra] UGH FINE`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Redacted] and [Unknown], Date Unknown_`

` [Unknown] My family’s estate happens to be very safe trust me Seti`

`[Redacted] I do trust you, but I do not know if this is wise.`

`[Unknown] Maybe it’s not, but sometimes in life risks are necessary :P`

`[Redacted] Not emotes please`

`[Unknown] ;P ;P ;P`

`[Redacted] Sigh`

`[Unknown] look its a fairly iscolated place in canada`

`[Redacted] *isolated`

`[Unknown] Fuck you english isnt my first languages`

`[Redacted] Will she be safe there?`

`[Unknown] as save as she can be anywhere`

`[Redacted] *safe`

`[Unknown] you’re such a pain in the ass`

`[Redacted] I accept, then. We have no where else to go and I fear she won’t survive if I have to keep dragging her from one danger to the next.`

`[Redacted] Meet me in Eichenwald and we will journey from there to Canada.`

`[Unknown] uh sure but why... that place?`

`[Redacted] I’m not sure.`

`[Unknown] right. Ill meet you there then.`

`[Redacted] Stay safe Kali. I worry for you sometimes whenever you go where I can’t see you.`

`[Unknown] that feeling is tenfold for me about you. I hate not being there to protect you two`

`[Redacted] I know. Goodbye.`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Tracer] and [Genji], October 24th, 2076_`

` [Tra] SWITCH PLACES WITH ME`

`[Gen] NO??????`

`[Tra] C’mon! No one else will!!!`

`[Gen] You’d have to come up with something pretty convincing to get me to leave my master at a time like this.`

`Like`

`end of the world convincing`

`[Tra] i cant`

`[Gen] ?`

`[Tra] nvm`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Winston] and [Tracer], October 24th, 2076_`

` [Win] Lena, what are you doing? People have been telling me that you’ve been badgering them about going to Africa.`

`[Tra] ...`

`[Win] Lena?`

`[Tra] Why didn’t you put me on that team Winston?`

`[Win] ...`

`[Tra] It’s because i told you isnt it`

`[Win] You’re not responsible for them Lena. What happened wasn’t your fault and no one blames you for it.`

`[Tra] I need the closure. I need to tell them that I failed.`

`[Win] That’s what worries me. You always take things further than they need to go Lena, and I’m worried that you might try to risk your life for them. `

`[Tra] isn’t that what jesse, angela, reinhardt, and the rest of them are doing? risking their lives?`

`[Win] Yes, but it’s not personal for them.`

`I think it’s just best to keep your distance for now.`

`Please don’t be mad at me.`

`...`

`Lena?`

`xXx`

` _Correspondence between [Tink Wall] and [Barbara Wall], October 15th, 2076, on board the cruise ship, Dreams Within, 500 km from the northern coast of Hawaii_`

` [Tin] I never in my life would have imagined a ship like this had both an omnic and human spa`

`isn’t that incredible?`

`[Bar] you looked like you were having so much fun that I got a little jealous that I wasn’t an omnic too :(`

`how does it feel like to be waxed and polished?`

`[Tin] probably more fun than having leg hairs ripped out`

`why do you humans hate your hair so much  
aren’t there more civil ways to rid yourselves of nasty hair follicles`

`[Bar] it’s a vanity thing`

`[Tin] I like your hair`

`all of them`

`[Bar] I bet you do gurl ;)`

`[Bar] huh`

`Do you hear that?  
That’s a lot of noise`

`[Tin] I hear it too.`

`Why are they shouting?`  
I have a bad feeling about this  
please come back to our room 

`[Bar] be right there`

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> Hana Song has always been confident about monsters. One: Real monsters, with their teeth and fangs, don't actually exist, and two: She's old enough to know that the monsters they fight everyday are people, and she and her team are very good at fighting people. While Symmetra might agree that the boogieman and the closet ghost don't exist, she's knows that the ocean is vast and deep, and that it hides many things. It never pays to underestimate what kind of horrors it holds.
> 
> When Jack Morrison lead them all onto this mission, he never expected it would turn out like this. Thankfully, Jack has always been the kind of man who can do what needs to be done.


	7. Sea Legs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's nothing to worry about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little behind on my writing so I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to post this week. But! Here we are, and here's the next part of the story.

Hana “D.Va” Song wished she could say that she stood strong the entire voyage, and that she had faced the ocean with the bravery and determination you’d expect from someone who had joined the army as soon as she was old enough to. And yeah, she did, in a sense, but she was also sick as a dog the entire journey from Hawaii, and had only recently, just as they were approaching their mission objective, started becoming used to the constant rocking of the ocean.

Everyone else it seemed was having a fine time, hanging around on the deck and admiring the pretty sunsets and sunrises. Some of them even had the nerve to talk about how pretty the ocean was, with how it stretched from horizon to horizon in a completely unbroken swath of deep blue. The occasional bursts of sea life, like sharks, whales, and dolphins caused bright laughter that could be heard from down below.

“There she is!” Bellowed the Captain, a much older Chinese woman who proudly called herself Captain Ching Shih. She wore her age proudly, shown through the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, and the authoritative streaks of white through her black hair. Though no one said anything, Hana strongly suspected that she was a former Overwatch agent, because if she was, that’d explain why she was dressed in extremely old-fashioned Chinese gear, authentic hat and all. After McCree and Mercy, Hana had learned not to question these things. Besides, she herself wore a jumpsuit and piloted a mech, so to each their own

The ship they were on, the SS Red Flag, was long, gray, and visually uninteresting, but Captain Ching insisted that her baby could outrun any other ship at sea, and that she and her crew could navigate it through even the most treacherous waters and come out shining.

Hana strongly suspected that they were pirates, but no one ever brought that up either.

“It is time.” Satya was at her doorway, arms crossed and looking at Hana sternly, as if Hana being sick was an inconvenience the girl could have easily avoided. Hana knew better than to be upset by this slight callousness, as she knew that Satya had trouble emphasizing with others. It was very easy to like the woman despite that. The fact that Satya was as lovely and ruthless as a goddess before Hana’s eyes did nothing to influence Hana’s affection for her, obviously.

When Jack appeared, Hana forced herself out of the bed and stood as straight as she could despite the constant rocking and shifting of the world around her. Jack had been as distant as always through the journey, but Hana found that she always had a fresh cup of water and a light snack on her bedside table, and her puke bucket was systematically empty. Lúcio likely had a hand in that, but she knew that Jack would insist that he do it himself.

The thought always made her feel warm and giddy. There was something about earning the affection of someone who keeps his distance from everyone else that made her happy.

Hana knew that she didn’t need to prove herself to anyone. Her own records and achievements spoke for themselves, and she was very proud of them. She was pretty darn impressive, and while she didn’t go around boasting about them, she didn’t let anyone talk down or walk all over her. However, being around Jack made her realize that she could always be better and everytime he watched, she pushed herself just a little harder. She constantly carried the hope that he was proud of her.

She didn’t have any role models growing up. Her own father had been distant, cruel, and uncaring. Nothing she did had ever been good enough for him. He didn’t so much as smile each time she brought home report cards that said she was top of her class; being Korea’s best Starcraft came only with scorn and a comment that she was “wasting her life” on these silly video games. He was very in the minority when it came to this opinion, and it infuriated her. It was likely because he as a very contrary man who hated anything other people loved, and Hana quickly learned to despise and distrust people like that. Joining the army as a mech pilot as soon as she was old enough went completely ignored, despite every other person in her life telling her that she was very brave to do this for her country.

She was good. She was amazing. She wasn’t going to wait around for him to see that.

When she joined Overwatch, she strived hard to impress them all with her skills, both as a soldier and a strategist. Hana refused to let them treat her like anything less than a soldier who was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. They were perfectly respectable to her, and she immediately warmed up to them for that and she found herself with a strong sense of belonging that she’d never really felt before.

Jack hadn’t seemed interested in her at first, but then he started saying small things like “Good job,” or “Keep it up, kid.” From there they found themselves at the practice range a lot and Jack gave Hana pointers and advice on her gun handling, and how and where beset to stand in different situations. He had been mercifully non-patronizing during these “lessons” that she quickly warmed up to him too. It was hard not to admire him, and even harder not to think about how he was the kind of soldier she hoped she would be when she reached his age.

He was like the dad she never had. It was embarrassing, but that didn’t stop her from occasionally following him around the base like a lost duckling. The only thing that made her feel better was that she often saw McCree doing the same with Ana. See! She wasn’t the only one with crippling parental issues!

“You doing okay?” He asked after Symmetra gracefully got up and left. Hana nodded and walked up to him to show off her hard-earned sea legs.

“Much better now. At least the trip back won’t be as miserable.” She paused before adding, “Thank you for taking care of me.”

He grunted and turned to lead them to the deck. “It’s the least I can do.”

When Hana caught her first glimpse of the ship, her first thought was that it was very pretty. It was an expensive looking cruise ship with a white base and golden trim, and the windows glittered an attractive blue that could be seen for kilometres around. 

“Vishkar Cruise Lines are made with elegance and efficiency in mind.” Satya said, as if reading Hana’s mind. “They are very popular, especially amongst wealthy artists.” 

“Are they made with hard-light?” Hana asked, genuinely curious. The idea of travelling out into the deep ocean with nothing but hardened light made her nervous, and she hoped that wasn’t the case. She was relieved when Satya confirmed that it wasn’t.

“No, though some components of it are. I would show them to you, but I do not think that we will have the time.”

“Are there any life forms on board?” Jack asked the Captain, ignoring the chatter going on between the Overwatch agents. The possible pirate frowned down at the fancy tablet she was holding, and answered a few heartbeats later.

“Not a soul, human or otherwise. My instincts are telling me that something is very wrong here Soldier: 76. I don’t know if it’s worth getting involved with whatever’s on the ship.”

“Noted.”

“Hey, it’s your neck. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She waved to her crew and their ship eased closer until it stopped just shy of the hull. A rope latter was attached to the railing high above with the help of small drones. This was done with such practised ease that Hana once again revisited her suspicions that these were all pirates. One by one, they climbed the rope and stepped onto the ship’s lower deck.

This was one of the first missions that Hana, as D.VA, was without her mech suit. Oh, it was nearby and she could always summon a new one if there was need, but it would be difficult to navigate a mech in such a narrow space. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little nervous about it, but she knew that Jack had recommended her for this mission specifically, so she wasn’t about to let him down. It still bummed her out that she wasn’t going to be able to livestream her descent into a spooky abandoned ship. Her fans would have absolutely loved that!

“Hey, you doing alright?” Lúcio asked her quietly after they had their feet firmly on the deck. Though touched by his concern, her first instinct was to deny any appearance of weakness.

“I’m fine! You have to admit though, this thing feels like a set-up for some horror movie.”

“Yo, do us both a favour and don’t jinx it, ‘kay? This ship is giving me enough bad vibes as it is.”

Jack interrupted them by waving them all over. Zarya and Torbjörn stopped their investigation of the nearby broken chairs and rejoined them. “I want two groups sweeping this ship. Take note of anything even slightly out of place and make sure to check any computers or devices you find, anything on there could be useful. Torbjörn and D.VA, you’re with me, we’re going to get to the engine room and see if we can get the power on this ship back on. Lúcio, Zarya, and Symmetra, I want you three to check the bridge and then work your way down from there. Stay alert and keep in contact.”

xXx

Their flashlights cut through the darkness of the stairwell as they clomped down the stairs. There wasn’t much point in trying to stay quiet; the stairwell was so quiet and that they could have been as lightfooted as the Shimada brothers and they would have still have made a racket. Predictably Torbjörn made the most noise, the stairs weren’t made with his short legs in mind.

It sort of reminded Hana of the games she used to play when she was a kid. How she’d go down their rickety basement stairs armed with nothing but a flashlight and pretend she was hunting monsters. The basement was the perfect monster-hunting ground for a small child; it was very big and there were a lot of places in there for a monster could hide. She never got very far, as her imagination consistently defeated her with shadowed images that existed just beyond the safety of her flashlight.

“Well, we can say with absolute certainty that nothing good happened here.” Zarya’s heavy Russian accent came through their comm channels. “The bridge looks like someone, or several someones, exploded themselves all over it. No bodies though. No gore either. Just blood, though there are piles of omnic junk lying around.” Hana admired how steady her voice was, she wasn’t sure if she would trust herself to speak after finding something so gruesome. She and Torbjörn shared a glance in the darkness, but neither of them spoke. She felt a wave of deep unease swell up inside her and she looked at the glow in Jack’s visor.

“We haven’t run into anything out of the ordinary.” He said, showing no reaction besides an extremely slight increase of tension in his shoulders. “But we’re almost at the engine room, so that might change.”

Pushing the door open to the engine room was unnecessarily stressful in itself, the door let out an unearthly shriek as it creaked slowly open. Hana’s joke about how someone should grease the hinges caught in her throat and never made it out as they walked through into the large and dark room. The engine room was as dark as the stairwell, only it was slightly creepier. While the stairwell was creepy in the sense that anyone below them could see them coming, the engine room was creepy in the sense that the engine parts created menacing shadows when light passed over them. 

She was just about to pass through the doorway when she thought she heard something behind her. It wasn’t an obvious sound that could be easily identified. If she had time to think about it, she would have said it was more of a movement her intuition picked than an actual sound. A shiver went up her back, then there was a feeling in the back of her mind that told her to turn around and draw out her gun.

With both her gun and her flashlight up and systematically combing the stairwell. Both Torbjorn and Jack tensed and had their weapons up and ready in an instant. The three of them stood there, silent and waiting for something to dare to make a sound, but as the seconds stretched almost to a minute, Hana slowly lowered her gun. 

“Must be my imagination.” She muttered, a little embarrassed that she had overreacted so wildly. “I thought I heard something.”

Jack said nothing and turned around to go back into the engine room. Hana knew that he wasn’t upset with her for reacting like she had, only relieved that it turned out to be nothing. 

“Ah, it’s nothing to be worried about lass.” Torbjörn said kindly, “This place is puttin’ me on edge too. There’s just something not right about this entire place, I can feel it in the air.” Hana entirely agreed. From the moment they stepped on the ship she had been getting a powerful feeling of _not right_ that only increased with every step she took. Though they had not discovered any giant blood splatters or bodies so far, they had noticed signs of violence as their flashlights scanned the hallways. There had been finger scratches all over the hallways and floors; smashed furniture in some of the rooms; broken pieces of omnics; and a couple smashed windows and doors. It was likely all of this that made Hana so jumpy in the first place.

There was something deeply eerie about being confronted with something quiet that you know for sure should be making a lot of noise. The engines, as massive and intricate as they were, sat silently, as if waiting for someone to set them ablaze to do what they were designed to do. Hana wondered what Satya would say about them. Maybe she would tell her that the engines were designed for both form and function, because Hana had never seen such an elegantly shaped engine, its white finish and silver components glinting when her flashlight landed on it.

“Welp, time to get to work.” Torbjorn said, clomping over to pull open a panel. “You two just stay outta my way.” Which Hana was perfectly glad to do. She and Jack nodded at one another and the two of them went to go poke around the general area, but not so far that they were all out of sight of one another. 

“Do you smell that?” Hana asked eventually, pausing her search through a dark corner to sniff the air. “It smells like... goji berries.” It did indeed smell like goji berries. It also smelled like blood, feces, and urine, but the goji berry stench overpowered them all, much the same way a cheap air freshener would simply smother bad smells with its flowery scents rather than get rid of them.

“Over there. Smells like someone tried to cover up a bowl of body parts with air freshener. We’ll check that out when the lights are back on.” Jack said, tilting his head towards a closet near the back of the massive room. Hana’s first instinct was to go check it out, but she stayed where she was and Jack gestured at her to go back to Torbjörn. Proud and headstrong she may be, she was also a soldier and obediently did as she was told. The older man didn’t move to check out the closet either, much to her relief, and retreated to where she and Torbjörn were. 

“So, how are you doing? Can you get the engines up and moving yet?”

The Swedish man snorted, as if amused and indulgent of Jack’s ignorance. “Up and moving? I’m definitely an expert when it comes to most engines, but I’m not sure this fancy engine is going to be taking us anywhere anytime soon. The entire system is shot and there’s some sabotage done to the engine. If I had the right tools then _maybe_ something can be done. I can get the power up, but it’s gonna be really limited and it’s not going to last very long.”

“We don’t need it to last very long.” Hana piped up in place of the older soldier, “We just need it to last long enough for us to search the ship and it’s computers, and then we can just go. Simple.” She glanced up at Jack, who gave her an approving nod.

“Pfft, ‘simple’ she says, as if she has any idea how big this ship is.” Torbjorn muttered, going back to his work. 

Hana happened to know exactly how big this ship was, thank you very much! It was big enough to house over three thousand people, both crew and passengers. She knew it had twelve decks, with the engine room and the cargo bay being on the lowest deck, and that it was over three hundred meters long. Which was about a thousand feet for those nerds who still used the imperial system. 

Admittedly, she wasn’t sure if the six of them could cover the entire ship, top to bottom, in just a few hours. It might even take them a couple days to comb through it, though Athena had told them that the Hawaiian authorities would discover the ship eventually, and that it would be in their best interest if they weren’t discovered with it. 

There was also the matter of the engine being sabotaged. Hana couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to trap three thousand people out here in the middle of nowhere. Obviously it wasn’t for anything good, but even then, what would a person with bad intentions do with so many people? How would they keep them? Even if they were all dead, which Hana still hoped they weren’t, as unlikely as that was, what was the point in killing them all? Senseless violence at a small scale was terrible, but still existed within the realm of understanding. Senseless violence at a scale this size went spiralling wildly beyond her comprehension. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by a deafening roar as the engines flickered, then blazed suddenly to life. Her headset automatically dampened the noise and she looked at Jack, waiting for him to give her the signal to go investigate that smell. 

“Good work.” He said to the other man, before nodding at the two of them to follow him to the back closet. Hana went eagerly, her curiosity clawing at her to find the source of that deeply unpleasant smell and then do something about it. 

She drew out her firearm again as Jack reached for the door handle, glanced at her to give her a brief nod, then pulled it quickly open and pointed his own weapon inside.

There was a lengthy pause from all of them and Hana felt as though the sound of the engine was suddenly inside her mind, causing her brain to vibrate against her skull.

“Oh my god.” She whispered in Korean.

Xxx 

There once was a little girl who stood at the edge of a pier with a woman who was unremembered but familiar to her. She asked her what it was like to swim in the ocean, as the woman was a renown and accomplished swimmer who the entire community was very proud of. The woman laughed and asked her if she’d like to find out. Before the little girl could fully realize what the woman had meant, the woman picked her up and threw the little girl into the water, heedless of the fact that the little girl couldn’t swim.

The little girl tried to scream as the water, deeper and more frightening than the little park pools, surged over her and dragged her down. Her terror was punished with an invasive flood of salty, dead-tasting water through her nose and moth, forcing every last bit of air from her struggling lungs.

 _”There’s a monster down there.”_ Was the last thought that went through the little girl’s head as the world began to fade away. She imagines a long tentacle reaching out of the cold, black depths and wrapping itself around her brown ankle, slowly dragging her down to devour her as only a monster could.

Twenty years later, Satya was hit with the thought whenever she saw the ocean.

_”There’s a monster down there.”_

It was stupid and childish and she knew that she should be beyond such thoughts and childhood fears, but not even the most rational of thoughts could properly chase them away. It wasn’t even that much of a lie either, there were indeed monsters in the ocean. You did not need an imagination to know that.

The moment Satya put a toe on cruise ship, she felt a powerful sense of unease snaking through the carefully built corners of her mind. It wasn’t just her fear of the ocean that unsettled her, it was also that life should have existed between these metal walls, but in the end there was nothing but a terrible void.

There had been 3139 lives on board before it had vanished. The old, the young, the in-love, and the lonely. Those were a lot of souls to have existed one day and then not exist the next. Satya was determined to find them. That was why she wanted to be here, because her own fear was meaningless before such injustice. 

Of course, that didn’t mean she was happy that they spent the past few days onboard a ship that, Satya was sure, belonged to a pirate. Or that she had to spend it in the close company of Lúcio, who she barely got along with. She did enjoy Hana’s company though, the girl was bright, charming, and energetic, so that brought a little balance to her continuous discomfort.

They went on the ship. They were given their orders. Symmetra lead the way towards the bridge with the Russian weight lifter and the Brazilian freedom fighter following her.

The darkness in the hallways was deep and almost total. The occasional burst of light from beneath the doors offered a teasing hope that something could be seen, but it was never enough to illuminate the walls in any meaningful way. What they _could_ see was deeply concerning: There were marks on the wall made by thrown furniture, hands, and who even knows what else. There was blood too, quite a bit of it, which suggested a battle at some point. Yet despite the carnage, there was no sign of the bodies the blood had originally come from. Symmetra had expected _something_ , but it would seem that that would have to remain a mystery for now.

They reached their destination and cautiously pushed open the door. The bridge was brightly lit by the afternoon sun, and would have been quite lovely and impressive to stand in if it hadn’t been in its current state. Zarya swore loudly in Russian, and Lúcio said something in Portuguese. It took a measured amount of self-control not to say something in her own language, and despite her initial burst of disdain for her companion’s reactions, she couldn’t help but agree with them. 

The bridge’s beautiful white and gold decor looked as though someone had taken a fire hose and attached it to a tank full of red paint, and then turned the hose onto the walls. When she looked at it closer, she realized that it would be far more accurate to say that it looked like someone had filled up several human-sized balloons past their capacity and then threw them at the walls, covering them with brownish-red splatters.

Satya knew that there were no balloons, hoses, or paint. The cold reality was that this room was coated with human blood, and the floor was littered with the remains of maybe one or two omnics. These parts were so small and broken down that it was impossible to tell how many omnics had been here. Satya had no strong feelings about omnics, and thought that they probably didn’t deserve whatever fate had given them.

Fear and unease flowed through the three of them, and Satya felt that this was the correct reaction to have. She was never sure when it came to people and how one should react to certain situations, but she was definitely sure now that she was reacting correctly. It was only when Zarya contacted Jack and mentioning that there were no human remains besides the blood that Satya realized that this was true.

Curiouser and curiouser.

The room felt like a cave, the air was unpleasantly warm and moist, and it carried the heavy smell of something Satya couldn’t place. There was blood, yes, and the unmistakeable stench of body-fluids, but over it was something else.

They couldn’t just stand there, staring out at this gruesome sight. They had a job to do. Satya pulled herself firmly from her own thoughts and attached two turrets above the doorway before bravely entering the room. There was no achieving a sense of safety in a blood-drenched room, but at least having them here would warn them if something tried to sneak up behind them. Satya wasn’t keen on adding any of their blood to this terrible display.

From the moment her own, clean, foot touched the floor on the other side, Satya could feel her skin start to itch and crawl. This place was a nightmare beyond imagining: It was dank, smell, messy, and extremely unhygienic. She was unquestionably going to see this room in her dreams, and spend many showers trying to scrub imaginary blood off her body. 

Despite her extreme disgust, she kept her composure as the other two followed her inside.

“What could have happened to a person to do this?” Lúcio wondered, his voice faint as he carefully examined a nearby splatter with a dark look in his eyes. “Is this what happened to all of them?”

“Probably not.” Said Zarya, her gaze sweeping the room before walking over to a table with papers scattered over the surface. “I imagine if all three thousand of them died like this, there’d be a lot more blood everywhere.”

“Perhaps we will find the remains of those missing passengers when we search the ship. There, at least, we will find answers.” Satya said coolly, trying, in her own way, to be comforting. She clearly failed, however, when Lúcio scowled at her and skated away to examine a desk near the windows.

Satya sighed, but didn’t try to push socialization any further. Zenyatta had said that she should be patient and understanding towards her peers in order to earn their trust, and that Lúcio would need her patience and understanding most of all. He had also said not to push herself beyond what she was comfortable with, as he was aware that socialization was very difficult for her. Satya liked that omnic, despite herself. His advice had worked, as she was no longer an outsider among them. She no longer found herself alone during meal hours, and she could always rely on someone to give her company should she desire it. The chaos her companions inspired still irked her, but she learned to find a little bit of comfort in it. It was so much different than what she was raised with in school, and that was a good thing.

Lúcio was a different challenge. He didn’t trust her and, in truth, she didn’t trust him. Professionally, they got along just fine. With the typical guidelines Overwatch provided for them to follow, they were able to work together without impacting their missions with their personal feelings. However, his mistaken belief that freedom was what all should strive for, when no such thing existed, clashed constantly with her belief that order came from rigid structure and the willingness to do what needed to be done.

There was a wall between them. One that stretched endlessly into the sky, and she wondered if she cared enough to try to climb it. Was he worth trying to understand? To befriend?

She wasn’t sure.

She walked up to the main computer and examined it, knowing that she couldn’t properly go through it until the power went on. Still, there were a few items of interest on it that had caught her eye. On one of the screens was a post-it note, miraculously undrenched by blood, that said “ _Power keeps going out! Go check the engine rooms again! -Smith_ ” in English. Below the screen someone had placed their smarthphone. It was bright pink, covered in heart stickers, and looked extremely out of place here, and not just because it wasn’t as dirty as everything else, so Satya carefully picked it up and wiped away the blood with synthetic hand. Underneath the grime, the phone’s case had the name “ _Barbara_ ” embossed in bright yellow letters. Curious, Satya tried to turn it on, and was surprised to when the screen lit up and showed the phone’s logo. She was even more surprised when the screen took on a lock screen that was most definitely _not_ factory standard, and before her was a very complex-looking password encryption screen. It wasn’t unfamiliar to Satya, she just didn’t expect to see it on such a simple-looking and fairly cheap smartphone.

Ah, so this must be important.

Before she could bring this up to the others, a loud grinding sound vibrated through the room, and she jerked around to see Zarya pulling the heavy desk away from the wall, having clearly spotted something behind it. The Russian woman stood up and flipped open the book she had been retrieving. She examined it while Satya and Lúcio waited patiently to see if what she found was interesting or relevant. 

“Hmm, it looks like journal.” Zarya said finally, “But it is written in Hindi. Symmetra?”

Satya gracefully put the phone in one of the pouches around her waist and went to to inspect the book. It was indeed a journal, and it was indeed written in Hindi. Despite herself, she couldn’t hold back a derisive snort. “Ah, paper, how primitive.” And it was written with a _pen_ too! It was positively archaic! “It is difficult to read, the handwriting is atrocious, but this journal belongs to the captain of the ship, Raveena Johar. Here, let me translate the last few entries...”

_Journal Entry # 14-10, October 13th, 2076_

_Every single weather report we’ve had over the past few days has, so far, been proven completely wrong. The storm we’ve been trying to avoid keeps somehow cutting in front of us. That is impossible, but the fact remains that we’ve altered our course twice, and yet our descent into this storm feels inevitable. I trust both my ship and my crew, so I am confident that we have the skill to withstand this storm with minimum damage. Still, there is something about it that unsettles me, like it is a bad omen for something terrible._

_We will hit the storm tonight. Only fate will tell us how it goes._

_Journal Entry # 14-11, October 14th, 2076_

_The storm has passed. My entire crew and all my passengers are accounted for. The storm itself was as violent as I had feared, and the ship has sustained some minor damages here and there, but nothing that will bring her down. During the storm, we briefly lost a passenger, an omnic, but crewman Juan was able to save him before he sunk too deeply._

_Some of my crewmen have reported that there is a lot of water in the lower deck, enough that we know that there has to be a breach. I sent one of our ship’s architects down with a couple of the crew to locate the breach and seal it. I wasn’t about to lose this ship AFTER the danger has passed, that would be embarrassing. However, the strangest thing was that no one could find where it was. Isn’t that strange? A hole that would have been big enough to let in that much water doesn’t just go away. I’ll have my crew keep searching._

_Several passengers have reported seeing something very large in the water following the ship, but I imagine it’s just an overly curious whale._

_Journal Entry #14-12_

_Communication is lost. We have state-of-the art radios, satellite phones, and every other form of communication possible, but every single one of them will not work. This is not good._

_Journal Entry #14-13_

_Several of the passengers have fallen ill. At first it was assumed that this was a large bought of sea sickness, which is understandable considering how badly the ship had rocked during our five hours in the storm. However, the nausea turned to fevers, muscle aches, and other sorts of internal discomforts, and I realize now that sea-sickness may be the least of our problems. My first-mate Jessica says that we should put all sick passengers and crew in quarantine and make an emergency detour to Hawaii. I don’t believe that anything life threatening is occurring here, but it may be better safe than sorry. The last thing anyone needs is to be stuck on a ship, even one as big as Dreams Within, with a sickness going around._

_Journal Entry #14-14_

_I can accept that our human passengers have gotten sick. It happens. But more than half of my omnic passengers have reported feeling unwell. Apparently their systems are sluggish, they feel as though their power is constantly failing, and they’re having a difficult time recalling basic information. Our resident omnic repairman says that there may be a virus going around, but he’ll have to check a few heads to be absolutely sure. Meanwhile, the omnics should be quarantined too, for the safety of the remaining passengers._

_Over half of my passengers and most of my crew have fallen ill two days after we hit the storm. There is something ominous going on here, but I will do my best to keep this ship running, even if only two hundred and fifty-two of my original crew and ship staff are left to run it._

Satya stopped, her eyes scanning the pages. “That’s everything that can be read. The rest is gibberish that isn’t legible in any language.”

“Spooky.” Lúcio said, “Alright, if that’s everything, I think we should head out of here. All this blood can’t be good for our general health. Weird though that there aren’t any bugs around. You’d think a thing like this would have them all swarming.”

“That definitely isn’t everything.” Zarya piped up, “We have not inspected the computers, which we cannot do without power.” Almost on cue, there was a deep roar from deep inside the ship and the light in their room flickered on, the computers popping back to life.

Satya thought that the brownish-red of the blood looked more sinister in the harsh florescent light. She could have turned to look away, but the room was coated, so that was fruitless. Satya was not a woman of pointless actions.

“You’re not going to believe what we found.” Hana’s voice filtered through their comm. “It’s... it’s hard to describe.”

“Soldier: 76, our boat is leaving.” Zarya’s voice cut her off. Satya and Lúcio spun around to look at her at her place by the window. The three of them flung open the door leading to the outside deck and sprinted out to the railing. Sure enough, the S.S Red Flag was speeding steadily away.

“What?! Shih! Come in! What are you doing? Answer me!” Jack snarled.

The only answer was a burst of static before all the comms died completely.

“Soldier: 76? D.Va? Torbjörn? Do you read me?”

There was nothing but silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for the kudos and the comments! I appreciate every single one of them. There's no happier moment than getting an email from this site telling me that someone liked this story. Though I'm aware that this story isn't generating as many hits as others do (I imagine it has something to do with the parasites and cannibalism) it does make me happy that at least a hundred people read each chapter, so I'm very happy to share this story with all of you.
> 
> Sidenote: I misspelled the name Barbara in the last chapter and that's embarrassing. However, in my defence I've never known a Barbara in my life. So there.
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> What lurks within the ship? What horrors could possibly exist that could cause over three thousand people to vanish?
> 
> Step by step, our Heroes move closer and closer to the truth. It's too bad that the truth is moving closer and closer to them in turn. Hana in particular will learn that the worst kind of horrors are the ones that exist inside you.
> 
> Literally. Inside you.


	8. In and Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes look for a way out, and Hana bonds with her teammates in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've already made fair warning about parasites in my tags and stuff, but just to let you know that there's some stuff near the end that may squick you out. Have fun!

_It was dying._

_That was the course of things, but no creature wishes for death. At least not those who are hellbent on survival. But all the hosts have been taken away. All the food had been eaten. There were no more soft bodies left for it. For It was It now and not They. They were They when They were One. It was the last, and It knew that it would die._

_What was It? Oh, It did not know. It did not know anything. If It did know, It would say that It was called The Kos. It was short for something, though the creature had no concept of short or long in the state It was in._

_Something new had been brought before It. A chance. A miracle. The smell of tender flesh and nerves and bones and thoughts came to It and It rejoiced._

_Come to me_  
And we will be happy.  
Let us be as one  
With the Great Mother.  
She will free you  
from the burden of freedom.  
Come to me  
Come to me.  
No.  
Stay.  
I will come to you. 

xXx 

Once, when Hana was nine years old, she had gone down into the basement to hunt some monsters, like always. She had her plastic gun and her backpack (which was specially designed to hold monsters). This little girl was going to do more than just hunt a monster! She was going to catch it and become rich and famous too. Deep down, in the most logical part of her little child brain, Hana had never expected there to be an actual living monster down there.

Little Hana, oblivious to the danger, descended like she had always done, her toys held in what she thought was a military fashion. She had reached the bottom of the stairs and had boldly walked past the light switch, deciding that a brave monster hunter didn’t need light. Besides, it might scare the monsters away, and she couldn’t have that. It was entirely true that turning on the light _would_ have scared the monster away, so it was highly unfortunate that she hadn’t.

As she made her way carefully to the back of the room, she heard something stirring inside the boxes to her right. Her heart leapt into her throat and she felt a tingle of excitement and dread. Her very first monster! She would catch it and show it to her father, wouldn’t he be impressed?

Dimly, she noted that the box that was moving had her mother’s name written on it. Her mother, Bo-Young Song died two years ago during a work-related accident. She wondered what monsters would be interested in her mother’s old treasures. The worst kind, Hana figured. The young girl was curious enough to try to find out.

With surprisingly steady hands, Hana had reached out and slowly pulled the top of the box open.

That was when the monster inside let out an unearthly shriek and launched itself at her face. Hana, letting out a shriek of her own, slammed her toy into the monster’s furry body and flung it into another pile of boxes, knocking them all over. A stinging on her cheek caused her to reach up, and when she pulled back her hand she found a red fluid covering her fingertips. _Paint_ , was her first thought, but she was a practical enough child to realize otherwise. Hana was no stranger to injury, she was a very active child who got bumps and scrapes very often, but this was the first time in her life something had deliberately gone out of its way to hurt her. Her lips had wobbled slightly and tears had formed at the corner of her eyes. This wasn’t how her world worked. The world wasn’t always good, but it was a safe one.

This was too much for the little girl, so she turned and bolted towards the stairs. The monster, loud and aggressive, actually chased her, and Hana could hear it bumping against the boxes as it followed her light. Panting, she reached the stairs and had sprinted up faster than she had ever moved in her life, and then hit the door hard enough to leave a bruise on her shoulder. Small fingers desperately scrabbled at the door, her shaking hands unable to hold the flashlight still long enough for her to see properly. In a fair and ideal kind of world, she would have found the doorknob and flung herself to safety; locking the monster in the basement where it belonged. However, this was neither a fair or ideal world, and what happened instead was that the door was jammed, which it was occasionally prone to doing. Her sister wasn’t around to let her out too, but that wasn’t surprising.

She was trapped. Worse, she was trapped with a monster. It was the worst nightmare of any child, and here she was, unable to escape it. Any other child would have flung themselves down on the stairs and started crying or wet themselves in fear. Hana did neither of these things, instead she turned slowly around and squared her narrow shoulders at the glinting eyes of the monster at the foot of the stairs. 

Hana was not afraid.

When her father came home a couple hours later, he heard a banging on the basement door. Realizing that his fool of a daughter had gotten herself locked in again, despite him telling her _repeatedly_ never to go down there. Angrily, he yanked open the door and was about to yell at her for being so careless, but stopped, his jaw hanging open and his words failing completely as he beheld the sight of his scratched and bloodied daughter, standing triumphantly before him. His disbelieving eyes raked over her torn clothes and dishevelled hair. There really were no words to say when your daughter looked like she went toe-to-toe with a rosebush.

“I caught a monster daddy! Come see!”

The weasel, which had been trapped under a plastic laundry hamper and had a bookcase toppled over on top of it, was removed from the house and put back into the wild later that day.

And here she was again, in a situation she couldn’t escape from. It had been bad when she heard that their only means of escape had left them, and it had been worse realizing that their only means of communication had stopped working too. It was a nightmare no matter how you looked at it.

The anger that radiated from Jack was intense enough that Hana could swear that she could physically feel it, rather like an overenthusiastically tended wood stove. The closet door was abruptly thrown shut; no way they were going to deal with that mess until they were ready. Hana didn’t want to think about it anyway.

As one, they turned and sprinted up the stairs with Jack effortlessly taking the lead and Torbjörn bringing up the rear. Despite his diminutive size, he kept up just as effortlessly and Hana would have admired that if she wasn’t so focused on getting to the deck so they could see this betrayal themselves. When they burst onto the deck, Hana automatically looked around for Lúcio and the others, and spotted them two decks above them. She didn’t waste any time waving at them and instead turned her attention to the rapidly shrinking grey blob in the distance.

“D.Va!” Jack snarled, causing Hana to snap to attention. “Call your mech and fly over there and _politely_ ask her where the hell she thinks she’s going.”

“Yessir!” She let raised her hand and firmly hit the button on her wrist and waited. In a fair and ideal world, it would have come and she would have flown over there and asked Shih where the fuck she thought she was going and found out that this was all just one big misunderstanding. However, no one lives in a fair and ideal world, and what happened instead was that the mech didn’t come. It wouldn’t come either, not for another couple days.

She waited.

And waited.

It took about five seconds for her to realize that her mech wasn’t coming. She pushed the button twice more to be sure, but rather like how punching the elevator button repeatedly didn’t make it move any faster, trying to call her mech was, currently, an equally fruitless task.

“I think whatever’s jamming the communication signals is also jamming my mech caller. That must be one powerful jammer, it takes a lot to block the Korean government.”

Jack let out a slow sigh of frustration, but didn’t do much more than that. “I can’t believe she left us out here.” He muttered, pacing back and forth along the railing. Hana heard a couple thuds behind her and looked around to see that, rather than taking the stairs, the other three had decided to just jump down deck by deck. Lúcio skated forward and took her hand without saying a word. She smiled gratefully at him and the two of them turned to watch their lifeline disappear over the horizon. 

“Do you know if she’ll be coming back?” Lúcio asked, his voice calm. They were all calm, as freaking out was both unprofessional and pointless.

“She should not have left to begin with.” Satya said crossly, glaring out at the sea. “What kind of person would leave us ion a ship we have no hope of operating by ourselves?”

“Not that we could if we wanted to.” Torbjorn interjected. “The engine was busted specifically so it couldn’t move. There’s a lot of foul play at work here, and I don’t like it. I can go back down there and make sure that the ship’s power is working properly, for all the good it’ll do us.”

“We need to check and see if there are still lifeboats.” It was Zarya’s turn now, “A ship this size must have many.”

“There’s a jammer somewhere on the ship.” Hana pointed out, “We need to find it and disable it if we want to call for help. Maybe it’s connected to the power turning on, because we didn’t have any problems before.”

“Hmm, yes, I could turn it off again and see if that changes anything. Might be a little hard on the engines, but we aren’t usin’ it to move so it’ll have to deal.” Torbjorn said.

“If it turns out that it is not connected to the engines, then finding such a device would be extremely difficult on a ship this large.” Satya crossed her arms. “It would take us days to go through each and every room in search of something we know nothing about, and that is even with my equipment.”

“Do you think you can detect it if we did find it?”

“Possibly.”

“Alright,” Lúcio ’s hand tightened around Hana’s, “We should also find a place for us to chill for the night. Seems to me like we’re going to be here for a while one way or another, and we might as well set up a base of operations. Also, hey Torb, are the pipes working”

“The plumbing is working if that’s what you mean. I’ll have to check the water levels, but we’re not going to be living like barbarians anytime soon.”

“We’re gonna need to get food.” The musician finished. “and, of course, a place to sleep. Shouldn’t be hard to find blankets here, this place seems like it’s for the rich types after all.”

“All good ideas.” Jack finally said and everyone else fell silent, all of them looking expectantly at their team leader. “First thing we need to do is look for lifeboats. I didn’t see any while we were approaching the ship, but you never know. D.Va and Lúcio , I want you to look around the decks and see if you can find anything. Report back here when you’re done. Torbjorn and Symmetra, I want you two to go back down to the engine room and switch off power. We’ll see if that does anything. If there is no change, then you might as well turn it back on. Zarya, you and I will go inside and see if we can find a room for us to camp out in. Also, keep our original mission in mind and collect any important device that looks like it might contain relevant information. Alright, that’s everything, so everyone move out!”

xXx

“So, how’s it going?” Lúcio asked conversationally as they wandered briskly away from the others. “I mean, obviously things could be better, but that look on your face when your mech didn’t come has me a little worried.”

If Lúcio had been anyone else, Hana might have tried to deny that she was anything but fine. Instead, she sighed and looked at the device on her wrist that was usually her lifeline. It sat there, dead and useless. “I feel just a little naked without it.” She admitted, “Like, it’s my job to stand in front of squishies like you and soak up the bullets, and I can’t really do that if I’m just as squishy as you are.”

“I object to being called a squishy,” he said mildly as they walked towards the back of the ship where most of the lifeboats would usually be kept. “Besides, it’s not like you’re not dangerous without your suit. I’ve seen how you handle a gun, and it’s kinda scary. You’re going to make McCree sweat one of these days, you’ll see. I mean that in the most flattering way, obviously.”

Hana laughed, the tension in her shoulders loosening a bit. No matter the situation, Lúcio had a gift of making her laugh. Lúcio was the kind of person who could put anyone at ease, he was special like that. “I have been trying to improve my marksmanship, so thanks for noticing.”

In the silence that followed, Hana took a moment to admire him. He was a handsome man with a handsome personality, and she definitely took notice. There were few people in the world who was as good-natured as he was, with Tracer coming pretty close. Zenyatta, of course, was a whole different plane of existence and obviously didn’t count. Physically, Lúcio had the warmest smile she had ever seen and the brightest, brownest eyes. Also she was a huge fan of his awesome hair styles and his toned, brown arms. There was something about him that spoke of both a great kindness and a steely resolve to fight for freedom no matter the cost.

It was one thing to admire him as a celebrity whose music she liked to listen to while fighting in her mech, it was another to meet him in person and realize how well they clicked together. In just a few weeks after meeting for the first time they had gotten along so well it was like they had known each other forever. It was nice to find someone to connect with like that.

“The lifeboats would be around here, wouldn’t they?” She asked, tearing her gaze away to glance around. The signs were in multiple languages and quite clearly said that this was a lifeboat area. However, there wasn’t so much of a splinter of one, as the area was quite empty.

“Yeah...” He trailed off and skated away, his head moving side-to-side, clearly searching for something. Hana let him go and went over to inspect the ropes and chains that would usually be used to hold back their elusive boats. Here, she noticed bloody hand and footprints everywhere, as well as bunch of tools, like saws and large garden sheers, cluttered in a corner. Most of the ropes and chains looked like they had been cut, which puzzled her. There was a release right at their base, and, after testing one by flipping the safety handle, they still worked fine. Why would anyone cut them?

That was when she spotted a leather drawstring bag dangling from the end of one of the few ropes that had been properly release. It wasn’t immediately noticeable because it was hidden behind a pillar. Curious, she reached over and carefully untied it and opened it up, and was pleasantly surprised when she found an ordinary smartphone. It had a glittery yellow case with a dandelion pattern and the name _Tink_ embedded on the front in a fancy sort of cursive. It was super cute and Hana made a mental note to get a phone case just like this when she returned to civilization. It obviously belonged to an omnic too, and Hana approvingly felt like they had very good taste.

She was delighted to find that it still had power, it turned on without an issue. There wasn’t a password on this, and Hana immediately went to go look at the pictures. The first one that popped up was of a pretty blonde white lady with the most impressive beehive hair Hana had ever seen. The woman was wearing a white and pink polka dot sundress and was standing in front of this very ship, her gloved hands pointing at it excitedly. The next picture was of the same woman and an omnic in a yellow, dandelion-patterned sundress. The omnic was wearing a bright yellow sunhat with even more dandelions decorating the base. She was pretty too.

This must be Tink, Hana thought as she swiped to the next picture. She felt a surge of sadness as she found more pictures of these two and couldn’t help but notice how incredibly happy and in love they seemed to be with each other. It practically radiated from every picture they took of each other. Here they were at a dinner table with the woman posing behind an elegantly prepared plate of lasagna, and here they were both in a hot tub with Tink playfully pretending to hide her nonexistence nakedness from the woman and the camera. There was even a morning selfie, with the blonde woman smiling brilliantly over Tink’s shoulder as they both lay in bed. They looked so happy, but where were they now? Were they okay? Did they escape? Or did they suffer the same way everyone else did?

There were hundreds more pictures, hours of video, and even some audio files, and Hana didn’t have the time to go through them all right now. This was left here though, so it must have something important on it. Determined to hang onto it, Hana put it back in the bag and tied it to her belt. Part of her hoped that she could return it to its original owner someday.

Sighing to herself, she walked over to the railing and leaned against it. The more time they spent here, the more unsettled Hana got, and some of it didn’t have anything to do with the whole ghost ship thing. No, what bothered Hana was how quiet it was. When someone is born on the outskirts of a busy city, the constant white noise of human life becomes a comforting background music. Hana never really realized how much she missed it until she was somewhere incredibly quiet. Here, the only sound heard was the waves gently lapping against the hull, a slight wind across the deck, and the low rumble of the ship’s engine. It was so lonely and isolated that Hana couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly put themselves somewhere without the sound of people.

“Whatcha got there?” Lúcio asked, skating back to her. 

“A phone. I’ll show you later. Did you find anything?”

“Nothing. With all the lifeboats gone you’d think that most of the people on the ship might have escaped, but somehow I don’t think that’s the case.” 

“Someone cut the boats loose. I... I don’t know if anyone was on them when they went.”

“That’s messed up. Let me raise the level of messed up though: There’s not a single life vest on this side of the deck. It’s like they’ve all been ripped off their hooks and thrown overboard. Or, more optimistically, some people managed to get them on and tried to escape.”

“Who knows how far they got.”

They fell into a contemplative silence as the two of them stood by the railing. Nothing they found here felt right nor did it add up. Hana was tired of silence.

“It’s so quiet out here. It weirds me out a lot.” Hana confessed, “I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere this quiet in my life.” 

Lúcio laughed and suddenly his healing music boomed through the air, shattering and shooing away the oppressive silence. “I can definitely do something about that. Silence is a no-go when Lúcio Correia dos Santos is around.”

Hana burst out laughing along with him and draped an arm over his shoulders “You’re the actual best, did you know that?”

“I know! I’m just that awesomely fantastic.” He replied, putting an arm over her shoulder in turn. “And I’m always here if you need me. If things get to be too much, let me know and we can go somewhere and listen to my tunes. I’ve been working on something special and I want you to be the first to hear it.”

“Aw, you’re too good for me. But the same goes for you. If you need anything, just tell me and I’ll punch it into submission just for you.”

“Hey now, violence is not always the answer.”

“Says the man who lead a revolution.”

“Heh, touche.”

“C’mon, we should take another look around and then head to the meeting point. Something tells me that we’re not going to find anything though. Commander Dad’s not going to be happy.”

xXx

_I see you._

xXx

“So there’s no way off the boat.” Jack said bluntly. By the time they had all gathered again, the sun was fast approaching the western horizon while the eastern horizon was starting to darken. “Turning the power off did not deactivate the jammer, and we are still without communication. On the plus side, Zarya and I have found a recreation room on the third floor that should work, and right now we should focus on getting set up.”

The room was clean, which was a huge plus considering the state of some of the rooms on the ship. It was a big, rectangular room with white walls and had must have been used for yoga or something more strenuous, as the floor was covered with thick blue mats. It had two doors, one leading outside and the other into the hallway. Jack was unhappy with the two long windows, which stretched all the way along the outer wall, until Satya assured him that the glass was of special Vishkar design and was virtually unbreakable. 

“All this fancy food and I can’t believe you’re making us eat out of cans.” Hana complained as she and good ol’ Commander Dad conducted their raid on one of the ship’s nearby restaurants. It wasn’t that “nearby”, as they had to go up a floor to reach it, but it was a lot closer than all the others. The two of them had to walk through the splintered remains of what used to be a grand dining room. There was blood here too, but Hana had looked passed all that and found herself marvelling at the design of the room. She could imagine a big fancy ball being held in a place like this, with a beautiful chandelier (which lay shattered on what was probably the dance floor) up above and a crisply dressed band playing music for the dancers. At first, she imagined Satya standing in this room of elegance and refinement wearing the beautiful white and gold dress she had seen her in once.

But then she imagined Tink and her wife or girlfriend here too. She wondered if Tink had a ballgown with dandelions on it. Were either of them good at dancing? Hana imagined that they’d have fun even if both of them danced like a kangaroo.

“Any non-perishables that were here have likely gone bad by now.” Jack said from inside one of the pantries. “Personally I’m not too fond of eating week-old apples and bread.” Hana was looking inside the restaurant’s massive fridge out of curiosity and found it surprisingly empty.

“Also we don’t want to risk contamination. Symmetra said that the journal they found indicated that people got sick.” He emerged with an armful of cans and stuck them on the counter. “Besides, this canned stuff is likely the most expensive thing you’ve ever put in your mouth. You definitely couldn’t get these on Overwatch budget. Even back when we actually had one.”

“Oh ew! It looks like someone tried to bite through this can!” Hana held up the can for Jack to see. It did indeed look like someone tried to bite through the aluminium casing, with no success. Hana could see bits of blood and skin stuck to the pointy bits on the outside, and she, very carefully, dropped it and let it roll away. She would have worried more about making a mess, but the kitchen had been completely trashed when they came in. All the utensils had been taken out of the drawers and thrown to the ground and some appliances have been ripped from their places and smashed against various surfaces.

“So, uh, how long until someone notices that we’re gone?” She asked as casually as she could, not wanting Jack to know that she was actually a lot worried about it.

“Less than a day. Winston’s on his own mission by now, but Athena would let him know when we haven’t reported in for a while. Since we have no way of getting off this boat ourselves, yet, we’ll have to focus on our original mission until either Athena sends help or Shih comes back.”

“Is that likely? I mean, she did leave us here to begin with and Ana says you should never trust a pirate.”

“She’s not a pirate.”

“Are you sure? Because she seemed pretty piratey to me.”

“Trust me, I’ve worked with her before and I know she’s not a pirate.”

“If you say so.”

“I do.”

“You didn’t answer my original question though: Is it likely that she’ll be back?”

“...”

“Jack?”

“Well...”

“Daaaaaad.”

“She’ll be back.”

Hana strongly got the feeling that this wasn’t the first time Shih had done this. That made no sense to her! Why trust her if this was a Thing she did?

Old people were so weird.

“Good, because-” Hana interrupted herself with a gasp when she saw something poking out from underneath the counter. Excited, she dived down and yanked a tablet free from the surrounding trash. Two electronic finds in one day! She was on a roll!

“It’s a tablet! If video games have taught me anything, it’s that this will undoubtedly have something important on it. Maybe a clue on someone’s last moments.”

Jack snorted, “Hearing someone’s last moments isn’t as profound or exciting as video games make them seem. Mostly it’s depressing and sometimes it’s even disappointing. Toss it in with the rest and lets get going. My map of the ship says that there’s a spa just down the hall, and I think we should visit it before going back.”

Hana visibly perked up. “I’m not complaining, but why?”

“I don’t want to spend all night listening to you whine about your dirty hair.”

“I feel so loved! For Fathers Day this year I’m going to buy you a tie _and_ a generic bottle of cologne.”

“Both at the same time? Good god.”

“It’ll be the ugliest tie you’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“A tie with my face on it?”

If his intent was for her to burst into full-bodied laughter then he succeeded. Her giggles echoed down the hallway as they made their way towards the spa. 

“Aw you’re not that ugly! I hope I look as good as you when I’m old and grizzled.”

“Nah, you want to look like Ana.”

“Wait, you’re right! I change my mind because I definitely want to look as good as Ana when I’m old and grizzled.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been abandoned so quickly in my life.”

“Ana is worth abandoning people for.”

It felt so good to relax just a little bit and joke around. Of course, the two of them were never truly relaxed, it’s hard to be chill when you’re trapped on a literal death ship.

“So, what’s on the schedule tomorrow?” She asked, pulling their conversation back to the real things.

“We need to continue exploring the ship. With any luck we’ll find either the jammer or the answers we’re looking for. So I expect you to get a full night’s rest, understood?”

“Aye aye Captain Dad.”

xXx

“Your hair is so lovely.” Satya said approvingly to her hours later. It was a stroke of luck that their room was so close to the gym showers. Zarya was there too, of course, and Hana kept her muscular form always on the edge of her vision. Both because it was attractive and because she secretly aspired to be big and muscular someday. Zarya had already taken her shower and was standing near the entrance, guarding it from any possible intruders. None of the three Overwatch men would ever invade their privacy, but there was always the possibility that they weren’t the only ones here.

There were no walls in this shower room but the three of them had seen each other naked before during missions and they had all been to bathhouse in Japan, so there wasn’t anything new to see. Embarrassment was for lesser mortals. Satya had offered to wash Hana’s hair and Hana was not about to say no. She liked having clean hair and there was no one better qualified for the job than Satya. And so the two of them found themselves sitting on low stools underneath a shower head.

“Thank you! I’ve actually been thinking about cutting it and maybe dying it pink to match my mech. Zarya and I can be pink hair buddies, right Zarya?”

She called the last part out and Zarya laughed and gave her a thumbs up.

“You would look good in pink hair! I might even let you borrow my dye.”

“And,” Hana said, returning the conversation to Satya, “I bet my fans would absolutely love it! I’ll probably have pink-haired merch by next month!”

“Hmph, the look is fine on Zarya, but you? I like your natural hair much better.” Satya sniffed, her fingers gently pulling shampoo through Hana’s hair. “But if you insist, then I should do it for you. Then, at least, you can live without worrying about whether or not your hair is symmetrical.”

Hana laughed as Satya rinsed out her hair. “I can only trust you to make things pretty.” She said with absolute honesty. Everything Satya did radiated beauty and refinement, almost to the point where Hana was a little bit jealous.

Satya didn’t say anything in reply, but Hana sensed that the comment pleased her. They sat in comfortable silence while Satya moved onto conditioner.

“Hey Satya, where were you born? You didn’t like with Vishkar all your life, did you?”

The older woman paused, and Hana wondered if maybe she was just a little bit too forward with her question. Still, she was curious.

“I was born in a vast city, but I cannot remember which one.” 

“Do you remember what it was like?”

“I remember that it was by the sea. When I was young, someone, a family member perhaps, picked me up and threw me off the docks.”

“That’s terrible!”

“I also remember the dances my mother did. Actually, I remember them more than I remember her. She moved so gracefully that her movements remained in my memory for as long as they did.”

“I’ve seen you dance before. Do you think you can show me sometime? I mean, Genji says I dance like a wounded kangaroo and sing like a crow with a cold, but it’s still worth a shot, right?”

This drew a laugh from her. “I would be happy to teach you. I suppose you don’t have a skill to teach me in turn?”

A skill? Hana had several, it was a matter of picking which one would suit Satya the best.

“Hmm... I bet you already know how to fire a gun and you don’t seem like the video game type. Though I know a few aesthetic games that would be right up your alley! Uuuuh.... oh! Do you know how to play the piano?”

“I do not, surprisingly.”

“Then I will show you how to play the piano! I’ve been playing for years. My dad made me learn back when I was, like, thirteen and I’ve been playing off an on since then. My piano teacher always said I was a natural, so rest assured that you’re not dealing with a total newbie.

“Then it is settled.”

The silence that fell then was interrupted a solid ten seconds later by Hana’s next question. “Do you miss your family?”

Satya’s answer took far longer to come.

“No.”

“Oh.”

“Do you miss yours?”

“No. My dad probably doesn’t even notice I’m gone and my big sister is kind of a terrible person. She once wiped out all my save data on my game console on purpose! She also liked spreading rumours about me at school, so one day I kinda snapped and punched her clean in the face. She behaved a little bit more after that.”

“You never mentioned a sister before.”

“I like to pretend I don’t have one. She was my babysitter when our dad was at work, but she always bailed right after he left, so I was home alone a lot. Once I got stuck in the basement with a weasel and my dad got _super_ mad at both of us because she was supposed to be watching me. She got _really_ mean after that.

“Your family sounds like a gem.”

“Sometimes I stop and remember that both my dad and my sister exist and I retch slightly.”

“I do not blame you.”

“But I’m in Overwatch now, and you’re all like the hilariously dysfunctional family I should have had. At least we mostly like each other, and that’s something a lot of families don’t do.”

“I agree.”

“So do I.”

Another silence, one that Hana was happy to let stretch out for a while. Surprisingly, it was Satya who broke it.

“May I tell you something, Hana?”

Oh, this was new and interesting. “Sure, you can tell me anything.”

“...”

“Take your time.”

“When I was thrown off the dock as a child, I very nearly drowned. I was sent to the hospital and the fees from my trip nearly crippled my family. Since then, I have always had a... a far of the ocean. I had to get over my fear of drowning when I became an Architect, but my unease with the ocean remains.”

Hana frowned. “But if you’re afraid of the ocean, why’d you agree to this mission? There’s a lot of ocean around here.”

“Because it is necessary to conquer your fears. I am telling you this because Reinhardt said I should tell someone I trust, just in case.”

She had Satya’s trust. That made her incredibly happy, and she nodded her head firmly to show that she understood what this meant. 

“If you ever fall in, I’ll be the first to come get you, I promise.”

xXx

Hana dreamed that she was sitting in her room playing a 2D sidescroller shooter. The person on her screen was none other than Jack in his full Soldier: 76 gear.

“Woo-hoo, you’ve got this!” Lúcio cheered from his place next to her. He had a thick frog blanket wrapped around his shoulders and a bowl of cheetos on his lap. Hana felt instantly happy and warm to see him there. “The no Mercy level is coming up soon! If you can beat that, then you’re going to be _the_ gaming goddess.”

Hana giggled and glanced away from the screen to give Lúcio a cheeky grin. “How about a good luck kiss huh? Everyone knows that frog princes have superpowered kisses.” Which made perfect, logical sense to Hana. It was a thing that everyone learned about in school. 

The projectiles Jack was dodging on the screen looked a lot like Reaper’s guns, so Hana knew that she was getting close to the boss of the game. This boss was a tricky one because the Bossmonster Reaper couldn’t die, so you had to trap him somewhere he couldn’t get out of. Hana always chose to put him in an airtight box and throw it out to sea. There were harsher, meaner ways to defeat this boss, but some of them made Soldier: 76 sad, and Hana didn’t like to make him sad, even if he was just a bunch of pixels on the screen.

“Hmm, why settle for a prince when you can have a queen?” A voice purred in her ear and she straightened immediately, daring to glance away from her fight long enough to gaze at Satya. The other woman looked as prim and proper as always, and sat next to her with all the grace and assurance of a cat. 

Before anything exciting could happen, Hana woke up. This turned out to be entirely stressful in itself as Hana woke up on her side entirely unable to move. She would have panicked or thought something was wrong if she hadn’t had sleep paralysis before. It was familiar to her, but she still tried to fight her way out of it anyway.

_Move_ she said to her wrist, which she had a very good view of. Speak she said to her voice, but no sound was made. In the end, her struggles were for nothing, and the only thing she could actively do was admire the veins on her arm. They were kind of gross to look at. At least it was kind of dark in the room so she didn’t have to look at them for very long. The only light source was Jack, who, apparently, was taking watch. Everyone else was snoozing quietly around her.

It was at that moment that Hana felt something slide up her leg. It would have been entirely unnoticeable if she hadn’t currently been in the grip of sleep paralysis and wasn’t hyper aware of her body and her surroundings. At first she thought it was just a bug, which was gross but nothing to worry too much about. In a fair and ideal world, it would have just been a bug. However, we’ve already established that sometimes things aren’t fair and ideal and great misfortune usually comes to those who don’t deserve it.

What made the feeling more unnerving was that it felt like something small and slimy was moving directly against her skin rather than over her tight-fitting clothing. A chill went through her and a shiver of inexplicable fear went up her spine. A sense of deep, impending danger hit her, every instinct wailing and slamming pots and pans together to get her to run away. 

Hallucinations, she decided. It had to be a hallucination. Last time she had sleep paralysis she was sure there was a gargoyle perched on her bedpost watching her and whispering video game facts in her ear. This was a little bit different, but it was entirely possible and not unheard of. She hoped. All she had to do was ride it out and things will be okay. Well, as okay as they can be being stuck on a ghost ship.

The feeling vanished for a moment that was long enough for her to convince herself that it was just in her head, but then reappeared across her back and over her shoulder. Then it vanished again.

_It’s not real._

Her heartbeat was like drums in her head and in her ears she heard the _swoosh, swoosh_ of her own blood as a slow panic creeped up on her. Hana’s breath was coming out faster now, but her lungs felt constricted and she suddenly felt like she couldn’t take in enough air. The sounds of her survival instincts trying desperately to get her to _run_ were louder now, and almost deafening in its frightened persistence. It was the fact that she couldn’t see the danger that drove her crazy the most. Hana needed to see the danger so she could fight it, that was how things worked. She wished she could see what the danger was.

One extremely popular saying that pops up whenever someone is faced with something terrifyingly ironic or ironically terrible goes as following: “Be careful what you wish for.” This phrase is often applied during a moment when an unfortunate wisher gets, more-or-less, exactly what they wanted. Sometimes those moments are comedic and are meant to lighten the mood, but this is not one of those times.

Hana got her wish, and if she had been physically able to, the moment the _thing_ slithered into sight she would have screamed at the top of her lungs.

It was a worm. Hana wasn’t afraid of worms, but something about this one strike a cord of deep terror in her. It was a light grey and its slimy skin glinted slightly in the low light Jack’s portable lamp gave off. She was able to judge that it was about the length of her pinkie finger when it slithered out from under her luxurious blanket and towards her prone hand. The Thing was much thicker around the middle, like a slug, but it had pointed ends like an earthworm. It could have been an ordinary slimy slug/worm thing, if such creature existed, but Hana got the deep sense that she was looking at something that shouldn’t exist in the natural world. A few moments later, she would understand why.

The worm creature continued its side-to-side slithering motion across the blue mat she had been sleeping on towards her hand. It was longer when it moved. Almost twice as long as her hand. It looked so wrong how it sent from being as thick as her thumb to as thin as a shoelace Hana held her breath, as if hoping it wouldn’t notice her if she didn’t breath. This tiny, pathetic-looking grey thing was scaring her more than most of the gunfights she had ever been in. 

It reached her hand and threaded itself through her motionless fingers, its long, shoe-lace body winding itself around them. Fleetingly, she thought it looked like it was trying to get her to do cats cradle. She couldn’t do cats cradle, she was never good at it for some reason. Slowly, it scrunched itself up until it was, once again, only two inches long. The part that Hana figured was its “head” delicately probed the inside of her index finger before moving to her palm. It poked at her palm a couple times, but this didn’t seem to satisfying it either, and moved instead to her wrist.

At this point the worm was only a few inches away from her face, so Hana could see every detail of its slimy back. _Leave me alone_ , she begged it silently, her mind conjuring images of it crawling towards her face and into her mouth or up her nose or even through her eyesocket. Where would it go from there? Would it crawl into her brain and eat it? Would it stay in her stomach and soak up all the food she ate until it grew so big that it would then explode out of her body in some horribly, gory mess?

What Hana didn’t know was that neither of those two things weren’t too far away from a possible truth. It wouldn’t matter if she had known, as she couldn’t do much more than let a few stray tears fall from her eyes as she watched the abomination examine her wrist. It seemed to like it there, enough so that it pressed its pointed face deep into her flesh. She could feel it press harder and harder until she wondered if it was going to puncture her skin. Four agonizing seconds pass and Hana realizes that the worm is getting smaller. At first, her mind can’t comprehend why, but then it dawns on her exactly what was happening.

Helplessly, all she could do was watch it burrow its way into her skin. Her light sprinkling of tears were rivers now, and her paralysis wouldn’t let her do more than tremble slightly. Inside, however, she was screaming. Loud and long and with such terror her teammates would have been up in a moment, ready to do battle with whatever enemy could make their friend make such a horrified wail. Unfortunately for her, the worst part hadn’t even begun yet.

There was a large bulge on her wrist now, the entire creature having wiggled its way in. There was no pain, which Hana thought was one of the worst parts, just the feeling of something pressed very hard against her skin. It stayed there for a moment, taking its bearings, before moving up into her palm. The bulge stopped, as if realizing that this wasn’t the way it wanted to go, before backtracking down to her wrist.

Hana imagined herself getting up and sprinting towards Jack and tearing his knife out of its holder. She imagined taking it and slicing open her own wrist, digging in with her fingers and ripping the monster free from her body. If it escaped further into her, she would keep cutting and cutting until it was gone. It didn’t matter if she cut her own body to pieces in the processes.

The bulge turned more decisively towards her elbow and made its way up her arm, before disappearing completely out of her sight. It was only when it got to her shoulder that she stopped feeling it at all. She sat up abruptly, her hands scrabbling at her shoulder in a desperate attempt to find it. That she could move dawned on her slowly, and the moment the realization hit her, she took in a deep lungful of air and was a hair shy of screaming herself hoarse.

And then she woke up again.

The sun was shining and she could smell something bubbling in the hotpot Zarya had found in one of the kitchens.

“Wow, you look like shit.” Lúcio said to her, his wide grin obscured by the bowl he was eating out of. “Here, I made sure to grab a bowl for you before Zarya at it all. It’s some really tasty stew, I highly recommend it.” He held it out to her and she slowly took it. Her head was pounding and her skin felt hot and uncomfortable. Did she have a fever? She took a few bites and agreed that it did taste pretty good, but quickly found out that too much left her feeling instantly queasy. She was so tired too, like she had been awake for forty hours on nothing but energy drinks.

She looked at her wrist and saw a rash there the size of coin. That made her frown; where did she get that? Something flickered before her mind, but she dismissed it. Whatever that was, it was just a dream. They were in the real life now.

In a fair and ideal world...

xXx

_I found you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prelude comes to an end and now the real action can begin. 
> 
> UNFORTUNATELY I am way behind on my writing and I haven't even started the next chapter yet, so I may end up not updating next week. I mean, I could have just taken this chapter and split it into three and been fine, but I feel like all of this should be in one. Meanwhile, feel free to check out my [tumbles](http://ladytron47.tumblr.com/)
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> Hana's health is slowly declining and the team takes another look at that closet, hoping for more clues. The trail leads them to a grisly discovery that gives them a glimpse of the truth, and it may be more than any of them can handle. Who are Tink and Barbara? Who sabotaged the ship? What is Jack willing to do to get them all out of this alive?
> 
> Watch yourselves, a storm is fast approaching.


	9. Help us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mystery of the ship itself have finally begun to unravel, but a new and troublesome mystery begins to take its place. 
> 
> Bit by bit, Jack begins to understands exactly what the stakes are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for: Body horror, bloody vomiting, self-mutilation, human expansion, and implied child death.
> 
> Also I posted this a day early because I'm an impatient fuck.

`Password Decryption Module: 3%`

xXx

[Three unnamed people are standing at the railing, all of them looking out at the horizon. A dark cluster of clouds looms ominously overhead and it is steadily growing darker as the sun lowers out of sight. One of the people, an omnic, makes a whistling sound.]

[Omnic]: That storm is going to throw us around pretty good, even on a ship this size.  
[Camera Human]: I’m glad I don’t get seasick easily.  
[Human 2]: Guess who’s not going to get any sleep tonight? This guy. I’m just going to lie there and think about all the ways we could die horribly in a storm.  
[Omnic]: Well, if you actually want a list...  
[Camera Human]: Does anyone else feel weird? Something about that storm weirds me out. A lot. I dunno, I’d think that the Captain would want to avoid a storm like this.  
[Omnic]: I think they tried to, but the storm is always there.  
[Human 2]: Maybe it’s following us. Wooooooo!  
[Camera Human]: Hey, did you see that?

[The camera suddenly tilts so it’s looking directly down at the water.]

[Camera Human]: I saw something! Something down there moved!  
[Human 2]: Uh?  
[Omnic]: This IS the ocean. There are plenty of things down there.  
[Camera Human]: Yeah no, I saw something huge! Oh goddammit I didn’t catch it on camera.  
[Omnic]: A whale?  
[Camera Human]: Bigger.

[The ship suddenly let out a loud, low drone.]

[Human 2]: That must be the warning the Captain asked us to look out for. Let’s go back inside, I definitely don’t want to be out here when the wind picks up.

xXx

[The room is tilting wildly and the sound of roaring wind and crashing waves can be heard outside. This, evidently, takes place during the storm. The camera moves from the room to a dark hallway. Two teenage faces, one dark and one light, appear and both girls are grinning. The blonde girl with green eyes speaks first.]

[Sarah]: So Aunt Hannah is _totally_ seasick and she passed right out. Since she’s not here to babysit us, I think we should do some exploring, right Emily?

[A dark girl with her dreadlocked hear tied back with a pink bow appears, nodding with determined affirmation.]

[Emily]: The crew is also super busy too, so we can go anywhere as long as we don’t get caught.  
[Sarah]: I super want to look at the engine this ship runs on. It _must_ be state-of-the-art. I mean, this is a Vishkar ship, right? Everything they do is state-of-the-art.  
[Emily]: So! If anyone asks, we’re doing this out of a strong and indomitable scientific curiosity.  
[Sarah]: What she said! A crewperson ran by a little while ago, so we’re going to go down the stairs right about... now!

[The camerawoman shoves open the door to the dark stairwell leading down to the engine room. It is strangely empty, but neither girls notice as they descend as carefully as possible despite the dramatic swaying of the ship.]

[Sarah]: Shit, I almost fell!  
[Emily]: Fuck, me too! We should have waited because breaking my neck on a cruise ship was NOT how I wanted to die. Hey, did you hear that?

[Sarah pauses, sweeping her camera and flashlight up and down the stairwell. A deep, ominous noise echoes up the metal stairs.]

[Emily]: That... that sounds like a whale. A sick whale.

[The pitch of the sound raises until the stairway is filled with a vibrating shriek. It sounded both very close and very far away. The noise continued until it sounds like hundreds of wounded whales howling right outside the ship, or somewhere inside of it.]

[Emily]: And that don’t sound like anything. Sarah we should leave, I don’t like this.  
[Sarah]: Yeah... yeah, science isn’t worth whatever that is.  
[Emily]: Wait... listen. I hear something.

[It’s difficult to hear over the echoes and the creaks of the ship, but underneath it all is a soft chirping and chittering sound. Sarah warily walks over to the edge and shines her light down. The camera picks up something moving along the ground below. Many hundreds of somethings, actually. Enough that the ground looks like it’s covered in a moving carpet.]

[Sarah]: Are those mice?  
[Emily]: They don’t move like mice.  
[Sarah]: We should definitely go now.

xXx

Jack ordered Hana back to bed the moment he realized she wasn’t well. He also made sure that she was separated from the others, just in case. Considering the journal that Satya read him, he wasn’t about to take any chances, even if this was Hana.

“How’s she doing?” Torbjörn asked as Jack knelt net to the girl and put a hand on her forehead. Christ she was burning up. She had woken up this morning and had passed out almost immediately after complaining about a fever and nausea. It’s been several hours since then and she hadn’t woken up yet, and Jack was quite a bit worried. Automatically he began to think of ways he could have prevented this, but without knowing _how_ it happened in the first place, each possibility he brought up seemed more outlandish than the last. 

“I don’t think she’s dying, but considering what happened here? Who even knows.” He stood up and put his mask on. As much as he’d like to stay here and “play mother-hen,” as Ana put it once, he had to continue with their investigation of the rest of the ship. So, in his place he decided to order Lucio to stay behind and mother-hen in his stead. A task the kid took up without question or complaint. Of course he wouldn’t, seeing as he was their medic.

Zarya and Symmetra together proved to be a very effective device-finding team, as each excursion they returned from brought in several phones, tablets, and thumbdrives, which Lucio and Symmetra spent about an hour going through. Jack had seen a couple, and it left him feeling grim. Most things left him feeling grim, it was the price of being alive, but what happened to these people in particular had been unusually terrible. 

The goal now was to investigate the closet they had found yesterday. The one none of them had gone back to look, and for good reason. They couldn’t ignore it forever, so Jack decided that he and Torbjorn should go see what they could see.

The stairs were just as dark as before. “Busted circuits.” Torbjörn had grunted. It didn’t make a whole lot of difference to either of them. Jack’s fancy eye-wear allowed him to see through darkness just fine and Torbjörn always had an uncanny ability to navigate around anything. 

Thankfully, the engine room looked just like it had before. Which was good, because if had been significantly different, then there would be issues. They reached the closet door, and with no more than a glanced in Torbjörn's direction to see if he was ready, Jack grabbed the handle and hauled it open, the both of them shining their flashlights inside.

xXx

[The video seems to be about a family, possibly from Mexico. Two children are splashing around in the large pool, their shrieks of laughter heard above the booming music and the loud chatter of the adult pool-goers. The camera zooms closer to an older boy who is sitting on the side of the pool with his feet inside, his eyes are watching the two boys intently.]

Mother: Why don’t you go and join them Alex?  
Alex: Someone needs to watch them, mom.  
Mother: Your father and I are watching them! Go and have fun dear, that’s what we’re here for.

[The boy reluctantly gets up and walks out of the shot. The camera turns to an amused man with short hair and a well-tended moustache. The camerawoman and the man share a moment of laughter for their overprotective son.]

Mother: Ah, he’s growing up so fast.  
Father: He’s a good boy.

[A loud retching sound turns the camera back towards the pool, where it focuses on the children first, to see if they were okay, then turning towards a large, heavy-set white man. His eyes were bulging almost out of their sockets, and he kept making loud gurgling sounds, as if something wet was lodged in his throat.]

Bystander: Someone, help!

[A lifeguard immediately runs towards him]

Father: Alejandro! Lucas! Come here!

[Frightened, the children immediately swim towards their parents just as the man vomits an impossibly long stream of blood into the pool. The reaction is immediate, and the room is suddenly filled with the sounds of startled screams and gasps as people surge to the sides and climb out. The two boys are lost in the confusion.]

Mother: My sons! My sons! Where are you?

[The camera is dropped and the mother takes a few steps into the fray, only to be pushed back.]

Alex: Mama!

[To his parents immense relief, Alex appeared holding his brothers by their hands. He had dived into the crowd of people to rescue the two boys.]

Father: Oh thank god! Let’s go back to our room, this is too much excitement for one day.

xXx

Imagine, for a moment, that there was a closet. An ordinary closet for ordinary things. Now imagine what it would look like if the closet was coated, from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling, with dark red globs of flesh that smelled heavily of blood, rot, and goji berries. As Jack ran his flashlight over the room, he figured that you should need to scrape off the fat and flesh of about ten people to get the amount he was seeing here. Another extremely noticeable thing about the room was that half the room was charred black, as if someone, at some point, had tossed a molotov at the flesh with the hopes of burning it. It

Once, in his youth, he and Ana tracked down a particularly clever serial killer who hunted and killed heavy-set men and women. When she was found, a process that took several months and a few close encounters, he and Ana had discovered that the woman had papered her entire household with the flesh of her victims. She would tell her guests that her books were all bound in “authentic leather” and that her canvases that she painted on were made from a special kind of parchment that “gave her inspiration”.

This was only a couple notches above that level of disturbing. In fact, the room itself didn’t bother Jack half as much as the who, what, when, where, and why that surrounded it.

“Poor sods.” Torbjörn said as he leaned closer to give a nearby blob a poke with his hammer. Nothing happened. Jack silently agreed as he looked and listened for any sign of possible danger. Somewhat anti-climatically, there was nothing. The room was just a room full of flesh, and nothing would come of it unless one of them decided to inside to check it out more closely.

Torbjörn and Jack looked at each other grimly and each held out a fist. Now was the time to see who the unfortunate fucker was going to be.

One. Two. Three.

“Fuck.” Jack muttered when he ended up with a rock to Torbjörn’s paper. Looks like he was the unfortunate fucker. At least that wasn’t news to him.

Without giving Torbjörn the chance to gloat, Jack went forward and immediately discovered that the flesh came up to his knees. Thank god his leg armour was water-tight enough that none of the mysterious liquids leaking from the blobs got into his boots. As he went through, his feet occasionally hit something hard that gave away under his weight with an audible crunch. It was like walking on old bones, which Jack knew it probably was because he’s walked on bones before, and you don’t forget that sound. Walking through the burnt flesh wasn’t much better, because the brittle surface gave away to a much nastier squelching sound.

As he waded ahead, he discovered two important things: First, his foot hit something much bigger than anything he’d stepped on so far. Ignoring any part of his brain that told him that this was disgusting, he leaned over and plunged his hand into the fleshy mess. His hand closed around something and he pulled, yanking what looked like a large ball of wires out of the mess. Figuring that it was important, he flung it out the door, narrowly avoiding hitting Torbjörn with it.

The second thing he noticed was that one of the fleshy walls had a face on it. No, it was more like a gross parody of a face where someone ,who had never touched an art supply in their life, tried very hard to draw a human face. The result was an abomination of stretched skin, empty eye sockets, and missing teeth.

“Huh.” Said Jack.

Cautiously, he reached forward with his gun and prodded the face, half expecting the eyes to open. In an unfair and unideal world, those eyes would have opened and Jack would have gotten the scare of his life as well as a few months worth of nightmares. Thankfully, the world was occasionally prone to being fair and ideal. Who even knew how long that will last.

“Whatcha got there?” Torbjörn called from his inspection of the mass of wires. 

“A face.”

“A face?”

“Yep. Something that used to be a human face.”

“I guess I’m not surprised, considering what you’re standing in, but that’s not right.”

“Here’s another one.”

Indeed, now that he knew what to look for, he was able to spot another human face on the floor. It made him wonder how many faces he’s stood in so far. This one looked like a child. The poor thing looked like they had large lips, a round face, and maybe high cheekbones back when they actually had bones. Another face looked like a Latino man with a distinguishable moustache. Each face was horribly stretched, like they had been pushed beyond their limitations in every way possible before they died, and each face held an expression of pure terror.

Jack decided that he had seen enough. These faces weren’t going to tell him what he needed to know and he was tired of standing in a wet cave of human meat.

“We’ve discovered a lot but we still have nothing but questions.” He said as he emerged from the room and closed the door. He found Torbjörn kneeling next to the mass of wires he had pulled out. “So, what is that? Anything interesting?”

“Very. This right here?” The Swedish man give the ball a firm hit with his hammer and the ball unfurled, revealing a squished omnic face. “This used to be an omnic. I’m not sure how, but something turned it inside out. All of its wires are on the outside and its outer plating is on the inside. A lot of its body to have been broken down already, the powercore being the first to go, but the rest of it looks like it was well on its way. Guess that explains the omnic bits on the bridge.”

“That doesn’t explain anything. If anything, it gives me about twenty more questions and a dozen more concerns.”

His mind returned uneasily to Hana. Could her condition have anything to do with this? No. He refused to connect this disgusting horror show to Hana. She was just ill. There was no way she’d end up a fleshy decoration on some wall. He was sure of it.

Mostly sure.

xXx

` Password Decryption Module: 21%`

xXx

[Two omnics are crowded around a third lying in bed. The fourth omnic is holding the camera and is leaning over to look at her with concern.]

[Omnic 1]: How do you catch a virus all the way out here?  
[Omnic 2]: It can’t be a virus! I’ve scanned your systems, you’re perfectly clean.  
[Sick Omnic]: S... Something’s wrong _bzzzzt_.  
[Camera Omnic]: Maybe it’s a hardware issue? We should get you to the ship’s omnic doctor.  
[Sick Omnic]: My... my wires... they feel like they’re going to burst out of my plating! Uuugh make it stop! Help me!  
[Omnic 2]: Put that camera away! We need to go find the doctor!

xXx

[Raveena]: This is Captain Raveena Johar of the S.S Dreams Within. We have an outbreak of an unknown disease and I am requesting quarantine upon arrival to Honolulu. Hello? Is anyone getting this?  
[Jessica]: All communications are down captain. Even the satellite phones aren’t working.  
[Raveena]: Dammit! How many people are in the medical bay?  
[Jessica]: Fifty. Twenty crew and the rest are passengers. We’ve had to clear out a nearby recreation room to accommodate them all.  
[Raveena]: Good. If we’re lucky that’ll be enough to contain it.  
[Jessica]: Should we make an announcement to the rest of passengers?  
[Raveena]: No, that would cause a panic. Have security be on the lookout for anyone who shows the symptoms. We’ll be in Hawaiian waters in about ten hours, we can hold out until then.  
[Jessica]: Yes ma’am.

xXx

A small figure crouched out of sight behind one of the pillars in the room, watching as the two men examined the jumble of omnic wires. Of course this person knew that there were others on the ship. He’s even followed a few of them around, unknown and unseen by them. But you could never be too careful considering what was and was not out there.

Soon, he thinks, but right now he just wanted to watch and wait.

xXx

[An overweight woman is lying in a medical cot. She is moaning and sobbing as an audible gurgling comes from her massive, distended stomach. Her face and body are all unnatural stretched, as though she had gained a vast amount of weight in an impossibly short time.]

[Woman]: Something’s inside me! Something’s inside me! Please. Please someone make it stop! I can feel it! It’s moving! Oooohh pleeeaaase make it stop! Someone help me!

[The covered face of a man, a nurse probably, appears and he solemnly makes his report.]

[Man]: Patient #12-01 appears to be suffering from severe bloating of all of her organs and an unnaturally high blood regeneration. Prior to boarding the ship, she insists that she only weighed 155 lbs. The patient now weighs in at 285 lbs and is still growing. We have yet to discover the cause. It should be noted that all patients who suffer from this bloating symptom all claim to feel “something inside them.” We will be conducting a full MRI scan on Patient #12-01 to see if there is any truth to that.

xXx

[Two children, both brown-haired boys with green eyes, appear on the camera, their eyes filled with tears and their hands over each other’s mouths to stop them from crying out loud. They appear to be hiding under a blanket. A terrible howling can be heard in the background accompanied by rhythmic thuds of flesh hitting metal.]

[Chris]: Something’s wrong with mom.  
[Daniel]: She tried to hurt us! Mom would never try to hurt us.  
[Chris]: She grabbed Daniel by the throat. Dad told us to go and hide. We blocked the door but I think she’s going to get through. Please, if someone gets this, please help us! We need help!

[A crash, louder than the previous one, can be heard and the door to the room is thrown open with a clang, all the furniture the boys had managed to pile in front of it fly uselessly away. The boy with the camera shakily holds it so the woman, her eyes opened impossibly wide and filled with a deep, seething rage, can be seen. When she speaks, she speaks in a voice that is ragged, harsh, and alien.]

[Woman]: _Where are my boys?_ Come on out! Mommy wants to speak to you!

[The two boys immediately start crying and the woman cranes her neck at them. A slow smile spreads across her face and her too-wide eyes glint dangerously. A smile that shows far too many red-stained teeth, as though the person smiling only has a basic idea of how a human face is supposed to move.]

[Woman]: There you are.

[She launches herself at them and the last thing the camera sees before it goes dark is the close-up view of her blood-stained teeth.]

xXx

[A blood-soaked man is standing in the middle of a cabin, a knife in his hand as he repeatedly cuts at his legs.]

[Bohai]: Someone help me!

[He screams as he continues digging his blade into his legs. The woman holding the camera is sobbing and saying something inaudible.]

[Bohai]: Please! It’s in my leg! I can feel it! Get it out GET IT OUT!

[Sobbing and cursing he cuts and he cuts and he cuts, the blood pooling rapidly at his feet. The woman is pushed aside and two security men charge onto the scene and restrain Bohai.]

[Bohai]: You don’t understand! You don’t understand! It’s there! I saw it! I just need to cut it out! Stop! No!

[The man is forcefully sedated and a group of medics rush into the room]

[Woman]: Please... help him. Please.

xXx

Once upon a time a man named Jack Morrison would have been absolutely horrified about what they had found in that room. That man had believed that while the world had a few issues with it, it was generally a good and fair world that was worth protecting and fighting for. Unfortunately for Jack Morrison he had been proven entirely wrong, and everything he loved and stood for turned against him, tearing him apart and leaving him for dead. If only he could have stayed dead, but Jack was always uncommonly good at surviving, and old habits died hard, as the saying went.

All these years he spent on his own, looking out for only one person, were necessary. He couldn’t call those years bad, because he was more focused than he had ever been in his life, but he couldn’t call them good either, his old good-natured self occasionally waking up to remind him of things he didn’t need reminding of. The old Jack Morrison had liked people a lot, but the current version, the Soldier: 76 version, wanted to keep to himself. Still, both versions knew that there was no peace in just existing.

Exposing himself to Overwatch was a risk. Not because it put him in danger, no he was used to that, but because he knew if he wasn’t careful he’d end up caring again. If there was one thing life taught him, it was that caring for others not only inevitably hurt him, it ended up hurting others too. And Christ on a cracker, if that didn’t end up happening anyway.

So here he was in a position where something he had grown to care for was possibly threatened by something he couldn’t shoot with his gun. He’d been in this situation before, of course. It’s hard to forget the times he had sat by someone’s side as they slowly slipped away from him, both of them helpless to do anything about it. Sometimes it happened quickly. He personally preferred this because it never gave him the time to contemplate what he had to lose as he lost it. Ah, but he hadn’t lost it yet, had he? There wasn’t any real evidence yet that Hana was in any actual danger, though it was entirely likely. He forced himself to stow away his worries for now.

He’ll get them all home safe. That was a silent promise to them. All of them. From Torbjorn, his old comrade, to Hana, his... well. Someone he cared for deeply and would fight an entire army for. She reminded him a little of Ana when she was young, and a little of himself. Of course, that was a little unfair for Hana, as Hana was considerably more successful than Jack had been at that age. Nineteen years old and she was already a world-wide celebrity with merchandise and movie deals, of all things. Not only that, she was also one of the best soldiers he’d ever taken under his command. 

He could feel a swell of pride welling up despite himself. 

Of course he liked the rest of them too. Lucio, Zarya, and Satya. They could all be equally charming and annoying at random intervals and he was perfectly fine with the idea that he could die fighting beside them. If there was ever a group of misfits he’d be glad to die for, it’d be what Overwatch currently was.

But there won’t be any dying. He’ll get them home safe. 

No, that’s a stupid, idealistic promise to make to anyone, including himself. He’s old enough now to realize that not everyone was going to make it home alive, that’s just how things were.

(He’ll get them home safe.)

Their trip up the other stairway was uneventful. This stairway had working lights, so there was no need for creeping slowly up the stairs in a tense silence. The lights showed that nothing particularly interesting was around, so Jack and Torbjörn struck up a conversation. 

“I think we have enough now to paint a general picture of what happened.” Torbjörn started, “Something got onto the ship and made everyone sick, both human and omnic alike. When things got worse, there was a shipwide panic and... well, I guess something happened and everyone vanished.”

“Just goes to show that we still don’t know anything. What made everyone ill? Was it a virus or something else? How did it get on the ship? I think we can figure out what it does to people, but why? Who would create something that affects both human and omnics? There’s a lot more to all of this than just a ship full of missing people. Much more. I feel like we’re standing in a very small piece of something much, much bigger.”

“If we don’t find the source and put a stop to it, then there’s going to be a lot more missing people in the future.”

“Exactly. No one deserves what happened here.”

This conversation would have continued down this late of thought for a while more, but something interrupted them that was entirely unexpected. It might have even been impossible, considering where they were and what they were doing.

It was the sound of a human voice.

xXx

[A woman and an omnic are standing in the light of the moon, the two of them are peering sadly down at the camera. Barbara leans over and kisses Tink where her mouth should be, and she speaks tearfully in what can be recognized as an American southern drawl. ]

[Barbara]: Our entire vacation is on this. I can’t believe we have to leave them behind. I want to remember all the happy moments, even if it all ended like this.  
[Tink]: We can’t bring our phones. He said that-  
[Barbara]: -we’ll be hunted down if we bring it. I know honey, but...  
[Tink]: We’ll be okay.  
[Barbara]: We’re leaving them to die.  
[Tink]: I know. He says that if we stay, we’ll die too. We have no choice but to save ourselves. I just hope that God and the Iris can forgive us for this.

[Barbara puts a hand to her face and stifles a sob and Tink puts a comforting arm around her while making light beeping sounds.] 

[Barbara]: I don’t know if anyone will ever see this, but I need to confess that it was us who sabotaged the engines. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.  
[Tink]: Everyone who will die here because they didn’t get the help they needed... that’s our fault. He told us that we had to shut down the ship and jam communications, so we did. 

[Both women are quiet for a while, before their heads jerk suddenly to the right.]

[Tink]: We need to go, but before we do. I just wanted to say here that I love my wife very much, just in case we don’t make it.  
[Barbara]: And I want to say the same thing. This silver beauty is the light of my life, and I don’t regret a single moment with her.  
[Tink and Barbara]: Goodbye.

xXx

The thing was, it wasn’t a familiar human voice, that was the most concerning part. It wasn’t Zarya, Satya, or Lucio. In fact, the more the voice called, desperate and terrified, the less human it sounded. It was the sound of a drowning man. It was the sound of a man forced to swallow glass. It was the sound of a man who had thrown himself into a pit of despair with what little he had left of his shattered sanity. The pleas echoed unnaturally off the walls, getting louder and louder with each step the two men took towards it. Jack tried to remember which floor exactly they were on, but the sound of the voice was so unpleasantly mesmerizing that he couldn’t think of anything else.

Back when Jack was a boy, forever ago it seemed, he had an uncle who once told him, over and over again, that some doors weren’t meant to be open. “Sometimes you see things on the other side that’ll make you wish you never found out. You can’t go back from those moments, Jacky-boy, and these things will change you. Not always for the better too. If you ever find a door that’s not meant to be opened, then promise me that you’ll turn around and walk away. Ignorance is bliss and all that.”

Jack had broken that particular promise a thousand times over, but the first time was burned into his mind forever.

When Jack was a boy, he sometimes stayed on his uncle’s farm during the summer. Everytime his uncle told him about doors, he always got the impression that he was talking about the room in the basement. The room had never been specifically mentioned, but jack couldn’t help but notice that the room was always locked when no other room in the house was.

So he did what any curious boy would do: He snuck into his uncle’s room and stole the key. While his aunt and uncle were gone he went downstairs and unlocked the door, his young heart beating wildly with the promise of excitement and adventure. When it swung open, Jack learned what his uncle had said about keeping certain doors closed had been true.

The door was closed and relocked. After he returned the key to its rightful place, Jack had spent the afternoon gathering supplies. That night, after his aunt and uncle were asleep, he slipped out of his window with a backpack full of supplies and plenty of money in his pockets and made the entire 110 km trek back home by himself. 

Another lesson Jack had learned from this was that while the truth could be hideous, it also needed to be seen to be understood. 

The older, more world-wise version of Jack Morrison stood in the hallway a few steps away from a closed door. He felt something in the pit of his stomach that he hadn’t felt in a very long time: Fear. From the room came a sound not unlike a giant heartbeat. 

_Ker-thump. Ker-thump._

It was so loud that he could feel the vibrations through the air, and the floor vibrated ever so slightly with each _thump_. An unpleasant smell of goji berries and rot floated through the air from door.

Every part of his body devoted to his continued survival was blaring, telling him that he needed to flee. Whatever was behind this door was not something any sane man should see. Despite what life had done to him, Jack was still very much a sane man. He shouldn’t look. He didn’t even want to look. 

But he had to.

“We’re not going to get anywhere by staring at the door all day.” Torbjörn said eventually, an old impatience crawling into his voice. He ignored Jack’s internal dilemma and slight existential crisis and walked over and put a hand on the door knob.

“Stand back, I’m going to open it.”

xXx

`Password Decryption Module: 50%`

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super glad that I waited a week because I wrote and rewrote this chapter several time. I even had to pause for a few days because I wasn't even sure if writing it from Jack's point of view was the right way to go about it. I could have written it from Symmetra's instead and kept the point-of-view changes to a minimum. But in the end I felt very strongly that this chapter and the next had to be about Jack. Also I initially intended to put a lot of things into this chapter, but in the end I realized that that would probably make it a 15 k word chapter, and I think that might be a bit much. But I promise you that if you're here for upsetting parasite things you're in for a real treat next chapter. 
> 
> Also yes, I did indeed end this with a cliffhanger. Yay me!
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> The countdown to the finale of this particular adventure has begun. It is no exaggeration to say that when the module reaches 100%, everything will go spiralling to hell. But before that, Jack has an unexpected conversation with an unexpected stranger and learns from him exactly what he's up against and what he stands to lose. Hana's condition worsens dramatically, and Jack is faced with a choice that could haunt him until his dying day. But again, we ask ourselves: What is Jack willing to do to save someone he loves? Should he open a door that should stay closed? Would he even find the answers he's looking for if he does? 
> 
> You'll just have to keep on reading to find out.


	10. Mikwendan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The stakes are raised in a way Jack never would have expected and his bad day only gets worse from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all: I'm very sorry for taking so long with this chapter! Here's hoping the length will make up for it.
> 
> WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Graphic baby death, parasites, disembowelment, robots being forcibly turned inside out, biphobia, internal racism, abusive relationship
> 
> I actually planned for it to be worse, so I'm mildly disappointed in myself. So yes, this is the tame version of what I was aiming to do. Ah well.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: The views shared by the person in the nightmare are not views shares by the Author. Just figured I should get that out there.

`Password Decryption Module: 65%`

xXx

[The bloated face of a man peers fearfully through the camera lens. His breath comes out in short, terrified bursts, and pink tears run down his pale face from bloodshot eyes. He appears to be huddled on the floor of his cabin, his blanket pulled tight around him in a feeble attempt to protect himself. But how can you protect yourself when the evil is already inside you?]

[Man]: My name is Anthony and something is wrong with me. I keep gaining weight, but I’m not eating anything and...

[Anthony stops, his eyes widening in response to a loud, bubbly, creaky noise sounds from deep inside of him. The camera is lowered to show the pale, fleshy surface of his stomach.]

[Anthony]: Oh god-

[Something below the surface of his skin moves. Several somethings move. His belly visibly wobbles and the gurgling sound gets louder, as if all of his organs were shifting around on their own accord. Anthony lets out of wall of raw terror and drops his phone, his next words barely heard over his terrified sobbing.]

[Anthony]: I’m so scared, I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Please! Someone help me, _**I don’t want to die! Help me!**_

xXx

Fear was Hana’s new reality.

Over and over again she ran through the hallways of the ship, going through each and every door only to find herself in another hallway. She had to kept running. Through she never stopped to look behind her, she knew something was there. Something was chasing her. Wanting her. Needing her. Occasionally whispers would float from the walls and they were terrible, alien voices that spoke a language she didn’t know, yet a language that was all languages at once. 

_Come to me._ They said. _Give me your mind and your body and I will give you freedom from choice and will. You cannot run from me forever._

But she would. She would run and run and run as far and for as long as she needed to because it wasn’t in her to ever give up without a fight. If whatever was chasing her ever caught her, then it would be all over. There would be no more Hana Song, and nothing in her world could ever be more terrible. And so, with her heart filled with fear and her mind smothered in horror, Hana ran. In her dream she begged for someone to save her, because she knew that she wouldn’t be able to escape this nightmare without someone helping her.

xXx

[A large angry crowd is shown through the black and white security footage from outside the medical bay. The people are repeatedly punching and kicking the door and wall, all of them seemed to be chanting something over and over again. The video has no audio, so it’s not clear what’s being said.

Suddenly, a person charges into the crowd, and the mob instantly erupts into terrified chaos. Several more people arrive, a few omnics this time, and fling themselves into the crowd. Several passengers are knocked out and dragged down the hallway out of sight of the camera. The crowd panics and flees to safety, leaving the camera free to see what’s going on. 

The ones that stayed behind are behaving strangely. They are moving like puppets at the mercy of an unskilled puppeteer, and their eyes glint with a strange whiteness that is apparent to even the low quality of the security footage. Their head swivel from side to side, behaving more like a predatory bird than a group of humans and omnics. Eventually, the turn their attention to the medical bay door and promptly open it. They apparently haven’t figured out how to use their hands, and so simply kicked the door down with strength that shouldn’t be possible for an elderly woman.

One by one they entered and the camera picks up shadows of several people moving around inside the room. The puppets eventually emerge from the room, each one dragging a blanket with a bloated human or an inside-out omnic on it. The people on the blankets were very clearly aware that something was terribly wrong and were reaching out to grab anything that could slow them down. They were helpless though, and were dragged out of sight of the camera.]

xXx

The running eventually ended, but not by her. The hallways of her reality began to change as she charged through the doors. The wooden floors transformed to grass and the walls melted away to a view of a tranquil lake lit by a blazing red sun. Suddenly, Hana was no longer Hana.

You.

You are waiting. For her. You are here because this spot means something to the both of you. It was where you first met. Where you first kissed. Where you told her that you loved her. There is no place on Earth greater and more beautiful than this and no person greater or more beautiful than her. She was your guiding star, your light of hope and love. Before that, the loveliness of the flat landscape meant nothing.

You wait there for her, your feet dipped into the summer-warmed lake and your hands, brown because of your heritage and the sun, are weaving a tiny basket out of grass. After a couple days this basket will grow dry and brittle and its bright green luster will be lost, but you choose to enjoy the beauty now, no matter how fragile and fleeting it is. As the shape of the basket is formed beneath your busy fingers, you decide that you’ll make your love a real basket. You will take thin bark and weave it together, all while whispering words of fondness and affection into it. A basket made of love, you know, will last longer than one made of meaningless beauty. 

The woman you love floods your mind, as she usually does, and you remember how lovely she looked in her yellow and blue jingle dress. How the small metal cones of her dress clinked together to form a song so pure that all the other dances faded in comparison. Your own dress had been white and you had worn it proudly because it had been made by her, so it was infinitely precious. She had come in first place, while you came a close second. You’ve never been a terribly good loser, or a terribly good winner for that matter, but for her you couldn’t help but be proud. 

A soft pit-pat of bare feet can be heard, and you swivel around, your heart beating excitedly in anticipation as she emerges out of the woods and approaches you. She looks as she always does with her long wavy curls dancing on either side of her round, high cheek-boned face. Her most striking feature is her bright silver eyes, which contrasts heavily with skin that was darker than the norm. She was often teased about them while they were in school, enough that she had spent many hours crying about it.

Seeing her so sad breaks your heart, so you would go often to comfort her and later on the two of you would laugh about how the really pale ones should have been “left in the oven to brown a little more.” Your skin is, in your opinion, the perfect shade of brown. If a person is too brown, they’re not respectable. If they’re too pale, then they’re barely indian at all. 

“You’re here.” You say, getting up and walking over to her to take her hands. She tenses slightly as you lean over to kiss her. To your surprise, she turns her face away and you stop or risk kissing her ear. 

“What’s wrong?” You asked, puzzled, hurt, and a little angry. “Why did you ask to see me?”

She doesn’t answer immediately, which only makes you angrier. You tighten your hold on her arms, a small warning that she had better explain herself. You don’t want to hurt her or upset her, but you won’t be held responsible for the things she might make you do. You love her, after all, and you know she loves you too, despite how rocky things are occasionally between you.

“I’m leaving.” She says finally. As she says this, she squares her shoulders and raises her chin in defiance. You don’t understand what she has to feel defiant about. It has nothing to do with you. You arrange your face so that it look puzzled and hurt as you step away from her.

“Leaving?”

“I’m leaving the reserve and I’m not coming back.”

That’s incomprehensible. Each word she speaks causes your world to crumble. How cruel can she be to ruin you like this? Doesn’t she understand how much you love her, and what you’ve done for her?

“Why?” You ask, your face hardening into a frown. She responds by stiffening, her arms cross in front of her as if to ward off your disapproval. 

“Because I can’t take it anymore. I’m leaving and I don’t want you to follow me.”

But that’s unacceptable. “You have nowhere to go!” You challenge her, knowing that this is true. “Your home is here. Your family is here. You don’t know anything about being in the city! You’re useless at everything you do! No, what you have to do is stay here where you can stay here with me. You deserve to be here, with me.”

She wavers, tears forming in her silver eyes. You hate to see her cry, but sometimes you have to hurt the ones you love for their own good. With this in mind, you take an imaginary dagger and plunge it in the biggest weakness you see. 

“Your family will never talk to you again if you leave. Do you really want to never see your brother again? Your mom and your dad? The entire town will talk about how you were selfish and left your poor girlfriend behind.”

“ _You’re not my girlfriend!_ ”

The words bring a ringing silence that shoots straight into your soul. A frog nearby croaks, the trees creak in the wind, and a bird can be heard singing in the distance. Nature herself doesn’t care about the silly drama of silly people.

“And I’m not leaving by myself.” She declares, her silver eyes burning with a fire you’ve never seen before. To anyone else it was a flame of passion, hope, and bravery, but to you it’s an ugly thing that needs to be snuffed out before it destroys something you cherish. “I’m going with Max, and he’s going to take me far away from you.”

These words instantly kindle a small flame of rage in your heart and you can only stare at her dark features, given a red glow from the setting sun. Who is Max? You don’t know anyone named Max and you know she doesn’t either. You know everyone she knows, and you know this because you have a constant access to her phone, and you spend many hours scrolling through her conversations. There has never been anyone named Max.

“Who’s Max?” You ask, your voice deadly.

“She takes a deep breath.

“My fiance.” 

You reel, stunned by this implication. Yes, you know that she likes men too, but you had always assumed that with you in her life she would come to her sense and realize which side she is really on. And here you were willing to forgive her for being touched by men before. You were willing to love her despite her confusion and too-dark skin. Who else would have loved someone like her? It just goes to show what happens when you let things slide. 

“You’re leaving me for a man.” These words are the most terrible you have ever uttered and your rage explodes into an inferno of hatred and disgust. 

She looks at you square on.

“Yes.”

It’s her fault what happens next. If she had just left things be, then they could have avoided this. Bruises appear across her ugly dark flesh and you surge at her and shove her into the water. This isn’t enough for you, so you jump on top of her, wrap your hands around her throat, and push her under the water.

She doesn’t last very long.

In the end, her body floats lifelessly in the water and you feel no regret. 

She got what she deserved.

xXx

The strange vision faded and she was Hana Song again. The memory of it still stuck with her and gave her the same feeling of grim disgust she had felt when she saw the little worm monster. It was like her and her mind had been stained with something ugly and twisted, and it left her feeling physically ill.

Slowly, she became aware that she wasn’t running in a loop anymore. She appeared to be in a different bed now, in a different room. She was comfortable though; Someone had wrapped her in warm blankets and had propped her up on a few pillows. Most noticeably there was an army wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her against a chest with an unusually loud heartbeat. He was humming something to a tune she felt through the vibrations of his chest. For some reason she felt a wetness in her eyes. No one had ever held her with such fatherly concern before. 

“Jack.” She croaked and craned her head weakly to look up at him. She felt strange. Her skin tingled unpleasantly, her organs felt mixed up, and her head was throbbing with a headache. Hana ignored it all because it wasn’t often that anyone, not even her, got to see Jack without his mask on. This was special for him and it was special for her too.

He looked so tired, she thought. His mouth was set in a grim line and his blue eyes looked hundreds of miles away. Was this because of her? Or something else? The expression faded away as he looked down at her with a start. He had clearly not expected her to wake up, and that worried her.

“You’re awake.”

“I think so. If this is just a dream, then it’s a nice change of pace.”

They were speaking in Korean, which Hana was grateful for because her headache made translation hard. Besides, she always found Jack’s Korean to be charmingly American.

“How are you feeling?”

“Lie someone put me through a blender. I just had the worst nightmare. At least... I think it was a nightmare. I’ve never had one like it before.”

“Tell me about it.”

Hana lowered her gaze until she was leaning more comfortably against his chest. They were both sitting on a mattress on the floor, and once again she wondered where everyone was and why she was put in a separate room. Her mind still hurt too much to think too much about it. Instead she told him what she saw.

“I was a terrible person.” She said after the story was finished. “I can’t even imagine what kind of person you gotta be to do something so evil.”

Jack sighed, as if something had been confirmed for him. “Things were a lot different for people like us a long time ago. It’s better now, but occasionally you get a lot of that old thinking floating around.”

Huh. Hana sometimes forgot that she and Jack had that in common. Papa Bi and his Bi-ling, she thought, amused.

“How was it for you growing up?” If Jack was in a rare mood to share personal stories then Hana was going to take it as far as it’ll go.

“Mmm. Alright. Most people didn’t care, but there’s always going to be that one person. Nothing that deserves a retelling though.”

“Aw. No angry girlfriends or boyfriends telling you to choose a side?”

“No. I’ve had a lot of issues with partners in the past, but never because of my sexuality.”

Lucky. Hana thought. She’d come across that attitude once before and you never forget that kind of thing.

“The worst definitely came from my family though. Have I told you about them?”

“Only that you stopped talking to them by the time you were my age.”

He stopped for a moment and Hana looked up again. There was a faraway look in his eyes again, though it was a bit different this time. 

“Jack?” She asked quietly. There was something wrong here beyond their conversation.

“When I was a kid, I once stayed at my uncle’s farm. He told me to never go into the basement.”

“But you did anyway.”

“But I did anyway. I stole the key and unlocked the door and I found...”

“Now you’re just making me wait to be a jerk about it.”

A laugh. Hana smiled in response. It was nice to hear Jack laugh. He spent way too much time standing around in a dark and grim silence, and that worried her sometimes. It didn’t feel right or natural for someone to go so long without laughing. She couldn’t even imagine how cold and lonely you have to be. But no worries, she was here and she took it upon herself to make him smile. She was here, and she would continue being here no matter what.

“I found some robes and learned that my aunt and uncle were the worst kind of racists, so I packed up and ran away.”

“Wait, you mean...?”

“Yeah.”

“Damn.”

“I got grounded for three years for that stunt. In that time, I learned that my parents weren’t much better. On top of that, my mom liked to drop hints about she hoped that I would ‘Settle down with a nice girl,’ so that I could ‘Give her some grandkids.’”

“Ew.”

“I ran away from home when I was seventeen and ended up not doing any of the things she hoped for.”

“Sounds like you won.”

“Depends.”

The conversation was a nice one. It drew her away from the reality of the ship and left her feeling good that she now knew him just a little bit better.

Silence fell and Hana enjoyed just lay there in his embrace. She felt safe and secure and could almost believe that things were going to be okay. Of course, Hana knew, deep down, that there were no safe places on this ship. She wasn’t a child.

“Something is wrong, isn’t it?” She whispered. He tensed, but his heartbeat remained steady.

“Something is wrong with me.” A memory came to her. A long and grey string winding it’s way around her fingers. She shuddered and pushed the thought away. There was something about it that she didn’t want to think too much about.

“I’ll take care of it.” Was all Jack said. “Get some rest.”

“But...” Her eyes did feel heavy and her headache was slowly creeping forward until it was almost unbearable. No, it _was_ unbearable. It felt like something was pressing hard against her brain, forcing it against the sides of her skull. Was something wrong with her brain?

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” In a rare show of outward affection, Jack kissed the top of her head and tightened his arm around her. “Go to sleep.”

“Stay with me.” Hana said, suddenly afraid that he would leave. Suddenly terrified of being left alone in this plain room with something stuck inside her. Her own fear felt alien to her, like it was being forced down her throat and into her heart.

“Stay with me.”

xXx

[This audio recording starts off with several long moments of silence before a baby stars crying in the background.]

Rosa. Rosa, sweetheart, this is your mommy talking. I’m doing the one last thing I can possibly do as a mother and I’m going to put you somewhere safe. I hope you’ll hear this someday. I’m very sick right now and I’m not going to get better. I’ve seen what happens to the others and I know that I don’t have a lot of time, but I need to spend every moment of what little time I have left on you. Daddy got sick too, and don’t worry about him, he’s in a better place now. He loved you too, remember that my sweet darling.

I love you so much, Rosa. You’re just a baby, but it’s important that you know that. I’m sorry that I’m never going to hear your first word, or see your first step. I’m not going to send you off to school, or give you bad advice when you fall in love. I’m not going to see you go to college and maybe become a scientist like your ma and pa. It breaks my heart when I think about all the things I’m going to miss, but what’s the most important is that you’re going to experience them, with or without me. I want you to live, my Rosa, I want you to be the best person you can be. That’s my wish for you.

The world is worth trying to make a better place, even if evil exists inside of it. Remember that, please.

I love you. Mommy loves you very much.

Goodbye.

xXx

It was strange to hear that kind of fear in Hana’s voice. She was shuddering against him and clinging to his arm like it was her last line to safety. A strong feeling of dread overtook him as he allowed their fingers to intertwine and let her grip them as hard as she needed to. All of it, from the visions to the irrational fears, fever, and headaches, only confirmed something that Jack had secretly been hoping hadn’t happened.

He had to accept that, despite everything he had learned from John and the others, he still had no idea how he was supposed to save her.

Jack was never someone who just gave up though. He knew he had all the pieces, he just needed to arrange them into the answer he was looking for. There was a way. There had to be. As he looked down at her, he felt his mind drift again.

xXx

[A man wearing a turban stands peacefully by the railing. He watches the sunset, completely heedless of the distant screaming and sobbing from the ship below them. The person holding the camera approaches him and the two stand side-by-side, continuing to watch the darkening sky.]

[Omar]: Is this how we die?

[Omar asks, his voice contemplative. He sounds neither afraid nor angry.]

[Kayan]: I think so.

[Says the woman, her voice sad.]

[Omar]: At least our daughter is safe. Safer than us, at least.  
[Kayan]: We are uninfected.  
[Omar]: How long will that last?  
[Kayan]: I don’t know.

[A pounding is heard on the door behind them, but neither Omar nor Kayan look back.]

[Omar]: If these are our last moments, then I am happy that I got to spend a lifetime with you, my love.  
[Kayan]: And you, Omar. You filled my life with so many good things. I love you very much.  
[Omar]: I love you too.

[The door crashes open, but again, neither of them look back.]

xXx

Tension and anticipation had built to the point that their focus was almost entirely on the door that jack was slowly about to open.

“You don’t want to open that.” The boy had said from a distance of about five steps behind them. Frankly the boy had been lucky that Jack had all the self-control he had, because otherwise he would have shot him. 

The first nations boy seemed about fourteen years old. Jack scanned him up and down, noting the shaggy hair, general lack of hygiene, and eyes that looked like they had seen hell and had been brought back to sanity against his will. He was also carrying a spray bottle of clear liquid, which was probably the second most significant thing about him.

The first most significant thing is where the hell this kid came from to begin with. 

Before anyone could ask some much needed questions, the boy walked forward, shooed Jack out of the way and coated the door with the contents of his spray bottle. Whatever it was smelled strongly of bleach.

“It’s bleach.” The boy explained, taking a step back from the door and inspecting his handiwork. He had been very thorough in spraying down the door, so much so that all smell of bleach was almost overpowering, even with Jack’s mask on. “They can’t stand it, so that’s the best way to keep them in.”

“They?”

“The Kos.”

“You’re going to have to explain a few things to us.”

“Sure. First thing’s first: Don’t open that door. If you do, we’ll all die.”

For fuck’s sake, where is he supposed to start with this?

“You’re Overwatch, right? I think I’ve seen you on the news, and I recognize you from the old posters.” He glanced over at Torbjörn, who gave a stern nod.

“Aye.”

The grimness in his eyes faded slightly and took on a new light. A flicker of hope. “We didn’t think anyone would ever find us. Juniper said that the thing that’s jamming the communication stuff also stops things from finding us.” His expression was suddenly full of worry. “Are there a lot of you?”

“No.” Jack answered, “just the six of us.” The boy gestured and the three of them walked away from the unopened door. Jack couldn’t help but glance back at it. The voice that called out to them could still be heard and the floor still vibrated with what could only be a giant heartbeat. 

“That’s good. The more people there are, the more dangerous the Kos are. We haven’t seen or heard any of them lately. I think they all might have abandoned ship after everyone was...” The boy paused, not necessarily out of horror, but because he couldn’t think of the right word to describe what he had seen. “...dead? That thing in that room might be the only one left. As long as it stays there, we’ll be safe.”

“How many of you survived?” This wasn’t something Jack had been entirely prepared for, but he’d been through this enough times that he knew he could handle it. 

“Me, my sister, two omnics, the Captain, and... well, you’ll see the rest when we get back to our base.”

“The Captain?”

“Yeah. Captain Raveena, but she hasn’t been well since Juniper brought her in. All she does is lie on her bed and stare at the ceiling. Mishomis says that her body is uninjured, but her mind is trapped somewhere. Juniper got damaged when he came back with her, and we haven’t figured out how to fix him.

Oh, and my name’s John.”

Their little hideout turned out to be in one of the ship’s massive laundry rooms. The hallway outside the room smelled of bleach, and there were two UV lights on either side of the door. The moment they entered Jack was hit with the familiar smell of desperate humans living in enclosed spaces. That part wasn’t the alarming bit. What was alarming was the startlingly strong smell of baby-powder and milk. The room had only one bright lamp burning in the middle of the room surrounded by small blanket bundles and the walls were lined with more UV lights. As they stepped through the door, Jack felt a tingle of something and he glanced around and noted several devices dotting the wall. He didn’t know exactly what they were, but he suspected that they were the reason these people didn’t show up on their sensors.

A young girl, maybe around twelve, stood up and ran over to them. The girl was much paler than her brother and had blonde hair, but there was no mistaking their family resemblance. Same eyes, same face-shape, same chin. Those eyes, eyes that held the same hardness her brother had, scanned them before looking at her brother. Jack’s gaze, however, slide from the girl to the baby she was holding. A baby. That changed things.

“You’re back! And you brought them too!” She said excitedly, peering up at Jack with open interest. “Hello, my name is Lavina! God, I hope you’re here to help us, we’ve been stuck in this room forever. They stopped punching the doors a couple days ago, but we can’t really leave.”

Jack looked down at her and told her with complete sincerity, “we’re here to help you. Don’t worry kid, we’ll get you outta here.”

“Good!”

The baby in her arms squirmed and started crying, startled awake by Lavina’s slight bouncing. The girl hurriedly tried to shush it, but its wails introduced more wails as the pile of blankets by the light started wiggling as one. 

“Oh fuck.” Lavina hissed and, to Jack’s horror, shoved the baby into his arms and ran to tend to the fussy bundles. Jack was stuck awkwardly holding a small red-headed child with one hand and his rifle with another. Scowling behind his mask, he shoved his rifle in Torbjörn's face so he could hold the child properly. 

The door to their right burst open and a four-armed omnic carrying a tray of bottles bustled in, followed closely by four other children, these ones a little older than the crying babies. “Oh dear, are they awake already? Goodness, and I had only just gotten them to settle down, tsk tsk!” 

“It wasn’t _my_ fault!” Lavina protested as she emerged with a baby in each arm. She handed one to Torbjorn, who quickly abandoned Jack’s rifle in favour of a small dark-skinned child with wiry hair. The child instantly stopped crying and watched with absolute fascination as Torbjörn spun his claw around around in front of his face. Eventually all five of them were clutching a child. The Omnic proved to be the baby-holder champion of them all and held three: two in each arm and one in his lap. All four older children instantly settled down, leaning silently against him and watching Jack and Torbjörn with quiet distrust. 

“Come, come, sit down.” The grandfatherly omnic said bossily, indicating the lamp. “My sensors indicated that none of them need changing, not yet anyway, but they are quite hungry. Here, take these if you will.” They all did as they were told and a brisk silence followed as they focused on feeding the hungry children. 

“That one is Rosa McLead.” The omnic told him helpfully, “her parents were rocket scientists who were here to celebrate a scientific breakthrough of some kind. They were quite happy to try to explain tot me, but sadly I wasn’t designed to understand scientific jargon. She’s ten months old. And yours.” He turned to Torbjorn, who barely managed to stifle his automatically distaste for omnics, and said, “Is Rafael Vine. He’s fourteen months old and his father was a businessman. He’s usually pretty fussy, but he seems to like you.”

“How are they?” John asked, bouncing a chubby toddler on his knee.

“Not better, but not worse either.” The omnic said. “You two wouldn’t happen to be doctors would you? For either humans or omnics? Oh, I supposed that is probably too much to hope.”

“I’ve repaired a few omnics in my time.” Torbjörn offered reluctantly, “and we have someone on our own team who can look at the other one.”

“Wonderful! I must say, things are finally to look up. I am Child-Care Unit #385-A, but these two have been calling me Mishomis, and I have grown rather fond of the name.”

“It means something very important in our language.” Lavina piped up, “we’d tell you what it means, but it’s a secret.” She finished cheekily. Jack felt that she was far too cheerful for her current situation, but people handled horror and tragedy in their own way.

“Alright, now that we’re all here, I’d like some answers.” Jack said, sternly trying to get things back on track. They were still stuck on a ghost ship and he still wasn’t sure exactly how much danger they were all in, and that uncertainty left him feeling antsy. “Let’s start from the beginning.”

“It must have started, oh, less than two weeks ago.” Mishomis started, “I wish I could give you a more accurate timeline, but I’m afraid I sustained some damage during the second attack and many of my systems are down.”

“There was a storm.” Said Lavina, “It was so bad I thought we were all going to die horribly in some kind of shipwreck.”

“Yeah, you were crying and everything.”

She responded to her brother in a language Jack didn’t recognize, but he’s been around long enough to take a guess at what was being said.

“Language.” 

Lavina, at least, had the decency to blush. 

“They did try very hard to avoid the storm.” Mishomis continued, “But it was impossible, so we had to cut through the worst of it. The poor children under my care had such a terrible time. It only lasted a few hours, but that was more than enough time for the horrible Kos to get on the ship.”

“What are the Kos?”

“That’s what Juniper says they’re called. Terrible, horrible little monsters that can infect just about anyone.”

“How does Juniper know so much about these things?” Jack asked, leaning in a little closer so he could gaze intently at the omnic.

“I have no idea, he hasn’t been entirely forthcoming with that. Still, he saved our lives, so I’m grateful for that.” 

“After the storm passed people started to get sick.” John picked up the threads of the story and continued on, “It wasn’t bad at first. Our aunt and uncle both got sick, they both got feverish and had really terrible dreams. Our uncle started complaining about headaches and our auntie Karen said she felt very sick inside, like there was something in her intestines.”

“She started to bloat up.” Lavina’s dark eyes became empty and dull as she stared blankly at the lamp. “She just got bigger and bigger. If you were in the same room as her you could _hear_ something moving around inside her. The medical team came and tried to take them both away. They told us that we should stay in the room.”

“We didn’t. We wanted to know where our aunt and uncle were, so we snuck out to see. We couldn’t get anywhere close to the medical bay, they had it locked down.”

It was Mishomis’s turn to speak now, “it was at this point I began to suspect that things were going to go badly, with the loss of communication and all the sick people, so I begun to worry for the little ones. I’ve always striven to be prepared for every situation-”

“By that he means that he’s known for being paranoid.”

“Hush, John! I try to be prepared for every situation and I immediately began stocking up on food and water and other necessary supplies.”

“And you thought to set up in the laundry room?” Jack thought that that was very lucky on the omnic’s part.

“No, I was about to set up in the playroom, but Juniper came to me and insisted that I move into the out-of-order laundry room below deck. I was sceptical at first, but Juniper was _very_ persuasive. Then the parents began to realize that something was terribly wrong with them and they gave their children to me.”

He fell silent and looked down at the children in his lap. The older ones were all still clinging to his robes. He ran a gentle hand through their hair, one-by-one, and they all looked up at him. 

“I promised that I would get them somewhere safe. Many of these children are orphans now. Can you imagine? They have only begun their lives, and they’ve lost everything. They’re still here though, and I swear on every circuit in my body that I will get them home.”

“What are they?” Jack asked, his voice as cold and hard as it had ever been. 

“The Kos are parasites. Some of them cause humans to bloat up while others cause them to be super aggressive. They affect omnics too. Some are smothered to death by their own wires, while others... well, they become just plain nasty too. The humans and omnics who get nasty are the most dangerous ones, they’re the ones responsible for most of the bloodshed you saw throughout the ship.”

“Technology that affects both humans and omnics ain’t unheard of.” Said Torbjörn, “but I have never in my life come across something that was obviously made with such evil in mind.”

“How do you know if someone is infected?” Jack asked, keeping his voice as level as he could as he watched the survivors intently. He would not acknowledge the worry in his chest until he was absolutely sure. And even if he was, what could he do? What can be done?

“Everyone usually experiences fever, nausea, and they usually end up passing out for a period of time. What’s most curious is that they all suffer from nightmares.” 

“One is about drowning a woman, and another is about trapping a bunch of people in a building and burning them alive.” John added. “One dream is about a human and the other is about an omnic. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.”

“That’s extremely specific.”

“Yeah.”

“To get back to our story,” Mishomis interjected, “some people became very aggressive and dragged non-infected people away and guided the bloated humans and... reversed omnics into rooms. Those ones create more Kos. By that point I had already set up my base here and Juniper had set up protection against the little monsters.”

“You saved us.” Lavina said, a quiet gratitude in her voice, “if you hadn’t come for us, we would have died. Our uncle had become one of those aggressive ones and we saw him... we saw him tearing open a lady’s chest while... while she was still alive...”

“I heard much noise in the hallway, and I couldn’t just leave them. The Kos are a hive-mind of sorts, however, and they quickly learned where we were hiding. Oh, how they hammered on the door! I was quite afraid that they’d take it down! They didn’t, obviously, but I had a terrible time getting the children to sleep with all the noise they were making. A few days passed and the ship grew quiet, so Juniper went out to inspect the ship and came back with Captain Raveena, can you believe it? Unfortunately, he sustained damage due to a stray Mes, that’s Juniper calls the aggressive ones, by the way, and has been offline since then.”

“And the Captain?”

“She’s in that room back there.” He pointed toward the door he had originally emerged out of. “You may look at them whenever you need to, they’re not aware of anything right now.” Mishomis sighed and got up to gently lay the children back onto their blankets.

“We’ve been waiting here ever since, hoping that someone would find us and take us away. That’s our whole story. Mr. Soldier, it would seem as if we are in your care now, what would you have us do? I absolutely must bring all these children home. All is not lost as long as they are alive.”

Ah, now it’s time to make decisions. There were now almost a dozen children, two injured adults, and Hana to deal with now. He was confident that help would come eventually. If Athena hadn’t already contacted someone by now then she simply wasn’t doing her job. It’d make things easier to bring them all to the upper floors.

“There’s one more thing.” Jack had to tell them. “One of my team fell ill not long after we arrived here. She’s been-” He stopped when the omnic and the two older kids stilled, all of them looking at him with a combination of horror and resignation. 

“If she has what everyone else did, then how can-”

“You can’t.” John cut him off instantly, his black eyes steely with cold anger, “once they’re inside you, they’re there to stay and you’re better off dead.”

That was exactly what Jack didn’t want to hear. He expected that Mishomis to say something different, but he only shook his head and leaned over to take the baby Jack was holding. 

“Perhaps something could have been done if you had gotten to it just as it infected her, if that’s what the issue is.” He said, not unkindly, “but it will either cause her body to mutate or it will turn her into something perfectly capable of killing us all. Death is preferable either way; I’ve had several infected people beg for it.”

Jack could see exactly where this was going and he refused. He absolutely refused. Not even Torbjörn's sympathetic look could dull his rising anger.

“If she’s passed out now, then you should probably kill her.” Lavina said unexpectedly. “But if you want to be absolutely sure, then wait for her to wake up and see if she’s had any nightmares. If she’s dreamed about a drowning women or burning people, then she’s infected and there’s no way to help her.”

“No.” Never. “There is another way, even if you haven’t found it yet.” The choice was there though. It was right where everyone could see it, but Jack didn’t come this far in life by accepting impossibility the moment someone presented it. However, in his old age he had to accept that often things didn’t go the way we want it to, and he had seen many of those videos Satya and Zarya had found. He knew about all the horrors the people of this ship had lived and died through. In the end, if all else failed, he would have to choose to lives of many over the life of one. 

“Can it be cut out?” He asked, “you can’t tell me that no one’s tried that. I’ve seen recordings.”

“I assume you’d have to know where it is first.” Said Mishomis, “nothing in the medical bay works. It was all smashed to pieces last I recall.”

“Also I don’t think they can be detected through x-rays and stuff.” John added, “I mean, they did tests on the people when it first started to happen. Juniper always said that they wouldn’t find anything, so...?”

“We will do as you say,” said Mishomis, “but please, keep her away from the children. I’ve come too far to lose any of them now.”

xXx

`Password Decryption Module: 86%`

xXx

[The camera focuses on the room. It is dark, and large pregnant fleshy shapes are attached to the walls of what looked like the bridge. Captain Raveena’s hand shakes as she scans her camera over them. The room pulses like a heartbeat, and pained moans come from the walls as Raveena focuses in on the stretched face of a blonde white woman.]

[Raveena]: Oh, Jessica... Williams... Deepa. This is my crew. This is what’s left of my crew. 

[A soft chittering sound is heard and Raveena skips back and looks at the ground, which is covered in flesh as well. A grey string slithers over her foot and Raveena screams and turns off her camera.]

xXx

[ **WARNING: GRAPHIC BABY DEATH** ]

[The deck is covered with people, everyone is screaming and crying and one woman weaves her way through the crowd, her pleas so loud and desperate they crack with terror. She is clutching a fleshy blob in her arms and she holds it out to people, loudly, desperately, begging them to help her.]

[Woman]: Please! Please! Someone help my baby! He’s sick! Someone help him! He’s just a baby, someone _please help him he’s just a baby!_

[Everyone who looks down at the blob instantly recoils away until the woman is alone in a ring of spectators who refused to look at her or the abomination she has clutched in her arms. The blob in her arms starts crying, his voice startlingly human despite there being no human features on the blob anymore. Someone retches and the crowd backs up even further.]

[Woman]: How can you all be so _heartless!_

[The woman shrieks, taking a few steps back and accidentally bumping into a bystander. It isn’t a very hard bump, but it’s enough that she squeezes the thing in her arms ever so slightly. It’s enough that a tear appears on the thing’s belly and a loud _pop_ can be heard over the suddenly silent crowd as the thing in her arms explodes, coating her and the people around her with a wave of blood and half-melted organs.

She stands there, shaking and clutching the skin of what was left of her son. The sound of several people throwing up as the crowd surges back even further can be heard, and the murmurs of sheer horror sweep through the crowd, but no one can look away. Something large and pink falls out of what’s left of the incubator and slithers rapidly away. The people in its path scream and jump out of the way while others immediately jump forward to try to crush it with whatever they had at their disposal. The fate of that worm is not captured by the camera, as it instead focuses back on the mother.

Unexpectedly, the ruined body she still held in her arms stirred feebly and then started crying again.]

[Bystander]: Oh my god it’s still alive.

[The mother finally drops the wailing bundle of flesh and sinks to her knees. She looks up at the sky and starts screaming with so much terror and anguish that even the devil himself would be frightened by it.]

[ **END GRAPHIC BABY DEATH** ]

xXx

[The camera is focused on an omnic who is lying on his side, away from person holding the camera. The omnic is sobbing and rocking back and forth, occasionally letting out a burst of sparks from his joints.]

[Omnic]: It hurts so much...

[The second omnic is about to say something, but they stumble back a few steps the first omnic’s body starts jerking and twisting with sudden, uncontrollable violence. The first omnic is screaming now with terror and pain as he thrashes around. Wires begin to slither out of from under his plating before tightening. Tighter and tighter his own wires pulled at him until, with a hideous crunching sound, the omnic’s plating gives away and he is forcibly turned inside out, his power core now on the outside.

His hands, still barely viable through the wires, reach feebly towards the camerabot.]

[Omnic]: Please....

[Letting out a cry of terror, the second omnic turns and runs out of the cabin, only to stop abruptly when the open the door to find that someone is already standing there. The camera doesn’t see who it is, but it doesn’t matter as the second omnic drops it anyway. A clank of metal against metal can be heard and the second omnic starts screaming as the sounds of metal being twisted and pulled apart accompany the horrified wails of the first omnic.]

xXx

Moving sixteen people through the ship was no easy task. The babies fussed and cried, and the older ones did not want to leave the room unless they were carried. Jack had left the room immediately with Torbjörn in tow so he could go back to get the others. Thankfully the others had all returned from their various jobs, which saved Jack the trouble of stalking through the ship to track them down. He answered their questions as monosyllabically as possible and then ordered Zarya and Lucio to return with Torbjörn to the laundry room. Meanwhile he and Satya scurried around the room trying to set up for the approaching horde. For Hana they chose a room a good distance away, but not so far that Jack couldn’t check up on her. Satya, thankfully, did not ask too many questions.

Jack chose to move Hana there himself, leaving Satya to put the finishing touches on the room under orders that she’ll help them set up their devices once they get here. When he was sure that she was comfortable despite her burning fever, he left, locking the door behind him as he went. 

When he got back he found the room considerably louder than he left it. The children old enough to do so were at the window, staring up at the sky. Lavina and Satya were chatting with one another while setting up the devices and the numerous UV lights the survivors had collected, and John was helping Mishomis and Zarya with the remaining toddlers. Overall, things were a bit chaotic, but not in a bad way. 

All of that looked like it was looking after itself, so Jack went over to look at the omnic Torbjörn was working on, and did a double-take. There was something startlingly familiar about this omnic and it had everything to do with Juniper’s frame, his yellow pants, and sandaled feet. For the barest moment he thought that somehow Zenyatta was lying in front of them. However, the more he looked, the more he could see that there were several differences. For example: Juniper was clearly a much older model than Zenyatta was, though they had the same frame, and he was covered in many deep scratches that spoke of years and years of conflict. Some of them even looked self-inflicted. His six forehead lights, all arranged in a diamond, were shattered by four deep cuts across his face. On his chest was the symbol of what Jack recognized as the Iris, and that was slashed up too. 

“That’s a Shambali monk.” Jack said, kneeling down to get a closer look. He noticed a heavy metal staff next to the omnic and picked it up. It was heavier than it looked, but perfectly balanced by two balls on each end. The surface was covered with geometric patterns that Jack could swear that he’d seen before, and the grip at the center had the Iris symbol engraved into it. Strangely enough, this weapon looked in far better shape than its owner. 

“One that doesn’t take care of itself very well.” Torbjörn grunted, “you see this damage? Most of it is decades old and the inner mechanisms are a mess. I’m amazed its lasted this long with half its functions barely working.” The tool in his hand sparked a few times. “Okay, I think that should be enough. Time to turn this ancient hunk of junk on and see what happens.”

In hindsight, Jack shouldn’t have been leaning over the omnic monk. If he had done the sensible thing and sat back while the omnic powered up, then he wouldn’t have been punched squarely in the jaw by a solidly metal fist. Thank god for his armour and enhancements, otherwise he would have been knocked clean out. 

“Oh! I apologize.” Came a mildly surprised voice that, thankfully, didn’t sound anything like Zenyatta. _Their_ omnic monk didn’t speak with a faint German accent.

“I’ll live.”

Anything else Jack might have said was drowned out by ecstatic cries as John and Lavina ran over and threw themselves down at Juniper’s side. 

“You’re okay!” Lavina said breathlessly, “We were sure that you’d...”

“But you’re not!” John said excitedly. “You’re awake!”

Juniper completely ignored them and continued to stare at Jack.

“You’re Soldier: 76, an agent of Overwatch.” He said.

That was very specific and Jack was instantly suspicious. 

“You could say that.”

This seemed to agitate him. 

“This isn’t good.” He muttered, turning away from Jack to stare at his own scratched-up hands. “If Sovereign knew that they were here... what would he do to them? You’re right, that’s a stupid question; I know full well what he’d do to them. They shouldn’t _be_ here!” Juniper opened and closed his fingers repeatedly, his distress made very clear.

“Overwatch shouldn’t be a part of this. That’s what they want. If you get involved now, there will be no going back. But it’s too late. There’s no going back for you now, not when she realizes that you’re here. And she will realize. She won’t let you go, do you understand? We wanted to keep you out of this.”

There were about a dozen questions Jack wanted to ask right now, but he actually had no idea where to start. A common theme for him lately, and he wasn’t happy with this trend.

“You’re in terrible danger!” Juniper said, finally turning to look anxiously up at him. While he had been babbling, the others, drawn in by Juniper’s loud voice, had come over to watch. “You have no idea what you’re up against! It’s like nothing you’ve ever faced before! There are three of them, four if you count their creator, and they obey only the Storyteller. You have to... you must... I can tell you that...”

“Juniper, please, you’re scaring the children!” Mishomis said as the baby in his arms started making distressed noises. “Hush your ramblings and get some rest, these people are here to help us!”

“If... you’re... here... you have... to... know.... _zzsst_ ” Juniper suddenly sparked and jerked before flopping back down, as motionless as he was before.

“Blasted tin can.” Torbjörn muttered, peering back down at Juniper’s gears.

“Can you get him working again?” Because all of what Juniper said was deeply concerning and did nothing to elevate Jack’s growing sense that something very terrible was on the verge of happening. 

“Sure, but it’ll take a couple hours. Not that any of us are going anywhere right now anyway.”

xXx

[An omnic huddles close to her friend in what looks like a kitchen, possibly the freezer. The camera pans around and we see that there are several omnics and a couple humans in there as well, though the humans were clearly a lot more uncomfortable.]

[Jen]: Did you see the man in white?  
[Hisako]: He wasn’t afraid of the infected. He just walked right through them.  
[K10]: Was he even a man at all? It’s hard to tell.  
[Jen]: Why wasn’t he afraid? Why didn’t he stop to help us?  
[Glip]: Shh! Listen!

[The group falls silent and there, almost unnoticeable, is a light chittering sound from the other side of the door. The group instantly tenses and the humans hold their hands to their mouths to stifle their breathing. The chittering gets closer, eventually stopping to scratch at the door. The group is so still they might as well be statues. Instead of going away, the chittering is joined by more chittering, and the small window shows long, narrow shadows slithering across it.

Then, to the group’s horror, a face with filmy white eyes peers into the room. He sees them, and a slow, inhuman smile spreads across his face, the expression of a predator who just found a bunch of nice juicy prey in a convenient location. The creature moves away from the window and punches it, its fist going right through it the first time. The group starts screaming and scrambling to the back of the freezer as a flood of the Kos came swarming through, each one eager to reach its prey first. The camera drops and goes out.]

xXx

[The camera opens on a man. What makes this recording unique is that this man is very dead, but something appears to be moving him slightly side-to-side, as if gently trying to wake him up from a deep sleep. This brief mystery is solved when the head of an omnic appears, followed by a handful of the man’s organs. The omnic puts the large intestine on a blanket beside him, which is piled high with human lungs, brains, a heart, and a few kidneys.

Now for the next mystery: What is holding the camera? This mystery is answered when the phone is slowly turned and a pale, filmy pair of eyes gazes straight into it. The thing slowly turns the camera away and we watch as the omnic picks up the end of his blanket and drags it forward into a room. The hallway he had been working in is littered with corpses, both omnic and human, and all of them have been harvested in mostly the same way.

A human walks by, but her blanket is covered in omnic hardware. She also drags this into the room. For anyone who knows the layout of the ship, they would recognize that this was the door to one of the cargo bays, which Overwatch would later discover to be the biggest blood-splattered room on the ship. From within the room comes the terrible sound of hundreds of people screaming and begging for someone to help them. If hell had a sound, it would probably sound exactly like this.

As we watch, we see a few more workers come in and start dragging the harvested bodies into the room as well. One-by-one they go until the hallway is clear.

The most unexpected thing to happen in any of these recordings happened right then: A voice spoke. The thing was, the voice did not speak with fear or horror, but irritated authority. It is difficult to hear whether it was human or omnic, as it is heavily modulated and quite far away. It would have been nice if the infected had shuffled a little closer to see inside the room, but she had grown bored at the phone and had dropped it at this point. The voice grows steadily louder and clearer as a pair of white dress shoes, miraculously clean, appears in the camera’s view.]

[Man in White]: -absolute failure. Neither of them are here. My sources _said_ they’d be on this ship and my sources never lie. No. I understand. Wait, escaped? Possible, they are wily ones. What are the names of the people they’ve escaped with? Hmm. I’ll start looking for them immediately. I’m leaving this hellhole, don’t forget to sink this ship when you’re done here, she’s very bad at remembering to do that-

[The Man in White walks off, his conversation fading into the screams of the damned.]

xXx

“Thanks for coming with us.” Lavina said as she and John followed Jack through the passenger decks. The two kids had spent the better part of the previous hour begging Jack to walk with them to their old room to collect some things before they were eventually rescued. They insisted that there was something incredibly important to them both that they absolutely needed to get before they left, and Jack, being the sucker he was, eventually agreed.

The walk wasn’t pleasant. The passenger decks had many broken doors, blood splatters, and long scratches along the walls. It seemed like a lot of the slaughter done to people had happened here, more or less. The two kids were carrying a UV light and Jack had the spray bottle dangling from their belt. John had assured him they were as ready for the Kos as they could possibly be. 

“Here it is.” John said, pointing to one of the few undamaged doors. “We were staying here with our aunt and uncle. Hope our stuff is all still here, though can’t really imagine who’d want to take anything.”

“Just be quick about it.” Jack said briskly. Of course he wasn’t about to let the kids go in first, so he went in, did a quick look through and under the bed, before coming back out and indicating that it’s safe for them to proceed.

“You go ahead, Lavina,” John said, “you know what I’m looking for anyway.” Lavina shot him a suspicious look, but went through the door anyway, leaving Jack and John alone.

“There’s something I wanted to show you.” John said. “It’s kinda gross, but if Mishomis or Juniper knew I had it, they’d completely flip their shit.”

“Do I really want to know, in that case?”

“Yeah, I think you do.”

Whatever Jack was expecting, and he had been working very hard to keep his expectations broad and flexible, it wasn’t what John pulled out of his backpack. What the boy had in his hands was a jar. Inside the jar was what Jack could only describe as a very long, slimy-looking grey shoelace. The moment Jack saw it, he knew he hated it and everything about it. Jack’s instincts were rarely wrong. This was something evil and he had to resist the urge to smash it out of John’s hands and crush it under his boot.

“What the everlasting hell is that?”

“It’s a Kos.” John said, his brown eyes grave. “It’s from my uncle’s head. After he died, it tried to crawl away, but I caught it in a jar. I don’t really know why I kept it, but I just... wanted to see it for myself. I want to be a biologist when I, uh, “grow up”, so I figured I should keep it and study it.”

“Why?” Jack wasn’t sure how he was able to keep his voice so calm when he really, really, wanted to kill that thing. 

“I wanted to know more about it.” John explained. “I know this is super weird to say, but it’s not dangerous. Not this one anyway. Look.”

To Jack’s utter horror, John opened the jar and the _thing_ instantly wiggled towards freedom, but didn’t go any further than John’s hand. It poked at his skin a few times, but eventually seemed to lose interest. Its body grew shorter and fatter until it could have passed for an ordinary slug resting on John’s palm. 

“I think...” Said John slowly, “that the Kos can only infect one person at time. Once that person dies, it pretty much dies too. I’ve been keeping this one alive by throwing in batteries and chunks of meat, but I think it’ll die eventually. I, uh, wanted to give this to you. You have scientists and stuff, right? You might be able to use this to help a lot of people. At least, I hope you will.” Looking suddenly nervous, he plonked the Kos back into the jar and screwed on the lid. Jack couldn’t help but notice that he hadn’t left any breathing holes. “Is that okay?” He asked, gingerly offering the jar to Jack.

“Yeah. You did good, kid.” Jack said, reaching over to take the jar. He did still want to kill it, but he could see the wisdom of taking it back for Winston to study. He stuck it in the bag he carried along for this trip just in case he found something worth keeping. 

“Ever sick, are you finally getting rid of that thing?” Lavina asked as she walked out of the room carrying a number of items. She shoved a teddybear and a journal into John’s arms, who blushed and tried to shove the bear out of Jack’s sight as quickly as possible. “This bear is thirty years old and belonged to my mom.” John muttered. “The journal was my grandmother’s. She was a famous explorer.”

Lavina was holding a small pouch, a sea shell, and a small wooden circle the size of her palm dived into four different colours: yellow, red, black, and white. “This is my medicine bag.” Lavina explained, “It belonged to our great, great, great, grandfather. And this,” she indicated the wooden circle, “is a medicine wheel. My mom uses this shell here to burn sage, she says it helps cleans us. When we were kids we’d go out to a nearby sage farm and we’d collect fresh sage. Have you ever been to a pow wow Mr. Soldier? I keep trying to get John to go to one, but he says they’re stupid.”

“Can’t say I have.”

“You should! They’re a lot of fun.”

She then said something to John in their language, who only shook his head. “Oh, not even! Don’t you dare!” 

“Hey John, do you remember the thing that grandpa used to say?” Lavina grew quiet as she tucked the wooden medicine wheel into her pocket. “He used to say that ‘No matter the tragedy, love always survives.’ I don’t know why, but maybe he was right. That’s a nice thought though, isn’t it? Love survives?”

“I think all of this has made your brain really soft.”

“Pffft, you suck.”

Lavina laughed and the three of them made their way back to the upper decks. Along the way, Jack stopped outside the room Hana was in and indicated to the kids to wait. He opened the door and walked inside to find Satya and Lucio both sitting beside her, both apparently in deep conversation. They looked up solemnly when he walked in and he stopped, instinctively knowing what they were about to talk about.

“I’m not going to kill her if I can help it.” He said, deciding to dive right into the heart of their fears. They didn’t need him to confirm what everyone already knew: That Hana was infected with something that will eventually kill her. Now what they had to do was figure out how to handle this. She was a ticking time bomb after all.

“And if you have to?” Lucio said, his ordinarily cheerful face suddenly expressionless and hard to read. There was a slight tension in the air, as if both of them expected him to take out his gun and shoot Hana there on the spot. Jack didn’t appreciate being made to be the bad guy and he was so, so tired of all this bullshit.

“Then I’ll be the one to do it.” He said firmly. He could tell that neither of them really liked that answer, but what was their alternative? Kill her themselves? Let her suffer? There was no real good way to go about this, and they knew it.

“I trust in your judgement, Commander Morrison.” Satya said, standing gracefully up and looking at him coldly. “You’ve never lead us astray on a mission before and I feel as though you have earned my trust.” But just barely, said her haughty glare. If he killed Hana then he would never have either of their trust ever again. Even if they wee both smart enough to understand the risks. Even if either of them would do it themselves if they had to. But Jack was fine with it. Used to it, even. Let them hate him for it should that time come. Jack would prefer that over letting them carry the guilt of killing someone they cared about around with them for the rest of their lives. Maybe he was the bad guy here after all.

“You two take John and Lavina back to the room.” Jack said quietly. “I’ll look after her from here on out.”

For a moment Jack wasn’t sure that Lucio was going to follow the order. The Brazilian man squared his shoulders before slowly deflating. He sighed and looked down at Hana, who was muttering fretfully in her sleep.

“Yeah, okay.”

Satya left not long after him, her gaze staying on Hana for a few seconds longer before she finally drifted out.

After closing and locking the door, Jack sat down with Hana. He waited for her tremors to pass. He waited for her to wake up and tell him her nightmare, therefore confirming to him that she was infected without a doubt. Then he waited for her to fall asleep. Minutes passed after she asked him not to leave before he spoke again.

“I’ve given my heart out to a lot of people over the years. Most of them threw it to the ground and stomped all over it. You’d think by now I’d have learned my lesson, but old habits die hard. You’re a good one, Hana, I’m glad that I met you, and I’m so proud of you. Have I ever told you that? No, of course I haven’t. You’re smart, and strong, and kind, and brave. All the things a good hero needs, and more. You’re exactly the kind of person Overwatch of old needed, but I guess it’s better that you’re part of the new Overwatch now. Someone needs to make it great again, and it probably won’t be me.

I can’t believe that I have to imagine a world without you in it. The old shouldn’t outlive the young.”

Christ, you’d think that after all the times he’s done this that it’d get just a little bit easier. Life loved kicking him repeatedly in the ribs though, and the pain was just as sharp and clear as it was the first time. The weight of it crushed the air out of his lungs and squeezed the last bit of feeling from his heart. He was acutely aware that the longer he stayed with her, the more danger he was in, but he didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to let go.

He never learned. No matter how many times, he just never learned. He remember Gabriel telling him many times over the years that he was too soft. He let his heart get in the way of his mind far too often and it was going to hurt him over and over again. Jack knew that Gabriel was right, but that didn’t stop him from caring anyway.

“I’ve lost so much. I’ve lost my friends, my lover, my job, my respect, and even my life in a way, but I’ve always held on out of sheer spite. I dunno if I can handle losing you too. Maybe that’ll be too much. Maybe it won’t be. Who even knows with me, even I don’t know how fucked up I am.

I hope you fight that thing in your body Hana. You show it that Hana Song can’t be taken or controlled. I’ll be here to help you, because what else are old soldiers for?”

What more was there to say? Not that it mattered; She couldn’t hear him anyway. Jack sighed again and fell silent, allowing himself to stew in his own dark thoughts. He came back to this frame of mind often and usually he had a very hard time getting out of it. The crushing fruitlessness of trying with the overwhelming odds against him. It was easy to dwell on. Comforting, even. That in those brief moments of darkness he could feel himself stop caring about the world enough to be free from it for a few seconds. Sometimes he wondered if it’d be nice if those dark moments lasted a little bit longer, but then he’d remind himself that that’s a cowardly way to look at it. Jack Morrison is no coward.

Hana wasn’t gone yet. There still could be a way.

For all he knew, Lavina could be right. Love survives.

xXx

`Password Decryption Module: 100%`

_Hello! You can call me Bob, and if you’re watching this then I’m afraid that you’re about to die. In preparation for your oncoming demise I have taken the opportunity to prepare a playlist for you so you’ll have something to listen to before you sink into the abyss. Or get devoured, I’m not sure yet which will come first._

_I’ve been told that there are easier ways to go about this, but it’s a bit late for that, so I’ll get right into it!_

_So! If you’re listening to this then I’m going to assume that:_

_1\. You speak English. If not, then I’m terribly sorry._  
2\. The Great Mother forgot to sink the ship.  
3\. You’ve found the phone. Of course you have! If you hadn’t, you’d probably be almost safe right now.  
4\. You’ve managed to unlock the phone. Well done! 

_I imagine that you were trying to unlock this phone because you thought that it would give you answers the other devices on this ship hadn’t. Sadly, that is not the case. Oh, and Juniper, if you’re still here then I’m sorry. I deliberately set this phone here to give you time to escape, but if you haven’t escaped then... Well. You know better than anyone. You did choose to stay rather than leave with me and these two ladies._

_So this is what’s going to happen: The moment this broadcast ends, the jammer will be deactivated and communication will be restored. However, it will also send out a powerful signal that will let the Great Mother know that she hadn’t sunk the ship like she thought she did and she’ll come back to finish the job. There are also a few charges stuck to the outside of the hull that will blow a few holes in her and hopefully sink it. Once the Great Mother approaches, a bigger bomb will go off and take out anything in a ten-mile radius. And Juniper thought that it was a bit too much to smuggle a fusion bomb onto the ship. Just goes to show that foresight is everything!_

_You will have about an hour at the most prepare for the worst, because she moves very fast through the ocean and a ship this size would take a while to sink, even with giant holes in its side. Perhaps you will escape, who even knows? I doubt it though, she’s very fond of sinking ships._

_That will be all, thank you. Bob, out._

_Oh! And before I go, one last thing: If you do some how survive and you still want to know what’s going on, then I highly recommend you look for Tink and Barbara! I’m going to tell them everything I know, they’ve earned it._

_Anyway, goodbye for real this time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate title for this chapter: Well that escalated quickly.
> 
> This chapter had far, far less horror in it than I expected as I ended up fighting with myself over how best to drop exposition without it sounding like exposition. In the end I gave up and just went with exposition because fuckit I've been struggling with this for weeks now.
> 
> Random fact: I spend half my year living on a reserve and the whole "put that kid back into the oven" thing is a common joke when someone's kid is "too pale". You hear a lot of shit when you work as a cashier. (Also people who are "too brown" get called the N word. Reserves are terrible places.)
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> Jesus Christ it's all gone to shit.


	11. I'm Stronger Than You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Hana struggle with the horrors of the Kos. It's really too bad that all the odds are against them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: BODY HORROR. That's just about it actually, but I don't think you can consider this chapter tame at all. Unless endangerment of the elderly counts? Either way, Jack is not having a good time right now.

It was the noise that woke her up. Unfamiliar noises that spoke of violence and fire, but they were known to her too, in that faraway sense that is something she should remember. She had heard them before. She also had never heard them in her life. The loud noise meant something bad and she reacted instantly.

She sat up and jerked out of someone’s fleshy grip. A voice was speaking to her, but she ignored it. Instead, she stared down at her hands with her newly opened eyes. Disbelief sparked in her brain. These were her hands. Her body. It was strange to feel that she was in two places at once. She felt the warmth of her... the word escaped her. A warm covering that wasn’t flesh. There was a feeling of air against her skin and the sensation of her world tipping in a way it shouldn’t. It was a feeling of being alive in a way she hadn’t been previously. 

The second place she was was somewhere warm and dark. Safe. Hidden away from danger. A shape beneath her own skin. This version of her had a purpose and she worked hard, desperately even, to serve her purpose. She remembered nothing of the small form she used to be. It wasn’t important anymore. Her duty still remained, however, and she finally brought the corners of her mind back to the present.

The human who had been shouting words at her grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet. She reacted. Her fingers gripped the human by the arm and, much to his surprise, she spun and threw him against the wall hard enough to leave a dent in it. He groaned and staggered to his feet, his pain shining from him like a beacon only she could see. He looked up at her with piercing blue eyes that stirred a sense of familiarity in her.

_Jack._

The name brought images to her of things that had never happened. The two of them sitting in front of a large screen and playing a game of her choosing. His smile during one of the rare moments she made him laugh. These things she didn’t understand, and that puzzled her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt something stir. 

He was shouting something at her. She could sense the desperation in his voice as he repeated the same words over and over, but her understanding of spoken language was woefully underdeveloped at the moment. She pried her way into the thoughts and memories of the former owner of the body, quickly pulling out everything and anything that might help her move. One of the sounds he kept repeating was one that caught her attention. He said it again and again, so she took the sound, examined it from every possible angle. The shape of the word was not as important as the meaning behind it.

_Hana._

It was a name that wasn’t hers, but she took it anyway, tacking it to her sense of being like an ill-fitting suit that she was desperate to wear. Hana smiled. Or, at least, she tried to. The face she wore was complicated and difficult, and all she managed was an exaggerated twitching around the mouth. She could move her hands though, her fingers flexed and closed as she taught herself how to manipulate them. Her legs weren’t quite so easy; she ended up stumbling and fighting to keep her balance in the slightly tilted room. Despite her clumsiness, she felt a burst of joy that was entirely her own. It forced its way up her throat and out her lungs as she let out a bark of laughter. She had successfully made a sound. Jack seemed more alarmed than ever.

Jack’s blue eyes darkened with emotions she recognized, only barely, as rage and hatred. Directed at her. The real her. 

“Get out of her!”

She could hear him now. Hear his words and understand them. Not well, mind you, but she understood the meaning being the shattered voice and saw the aggression in his tense body. He was a danger to her. Hana grinned. It was becoming easier and easier to control her body the more she ran her mind up and through it. The growing knowledge thrilled her.

“She’s mine now.” She managed to say, her voice a halting, grating parody of the bright and chirpy human she used to be.

Every instinct told her to do it, so she did. She launched herself across the room and tackled him to the ground. There was an excited thrumming in her ears as her human heart beat wildly in excitement and anticipation for her first kill in this body of hers. Her vision narrowed until her already tiny world only consisted of her and him. Her prey. Her fingers closed around his throat and she attempted to smother the life out of him by crushing his throat with her bare hands. It would have worked on an ordinary human, but she felt something hard around his neck, which she hadn’t accounted for, and he was not dying like he should be doing. 

Jack took advantage of her confusion to punch her square in the chest then kick her right off of him. She hissed, baring her teeth and scrambled gracelessly to her feet. A blow like that would have bruised the old Hana, but the newer Hana was made of tougher stuff and would need more than a kick and a punch to damage her in any meaningful way. Still, she felt it. Pain. The strange, accepting thing that coursed through her nerves and fired into her brain. Pain meant danger. Hana didn’t like danger.

Angry now, Hana hissed again and launched herself at him a second time, only this time she used her shoulder and body to hit him square in the stomach and knock him back hard enough to send him right through a section of the wall. Dull puzzlement overtook her and she walked over to inspect the damage. A door, she would have thought, if the Kos had any ability to properly comprehend doors. They couldn’t, not really, so she lost interest in the enigmatic concept and focused instead on the man lying on the floor like a crumpled ragdoll. She knelt down to examine the man. He wasn’t moving, but his heartbeat and short breaths told her that he was still alive.

_Jack... no... get up! Fight!_

The strange thing was that she didn’t know what to do next. Every Kos like her, the Mes, was given and important duty, but she had no Nan to guard and take care of. At least, that’s what she thought until she heard it call out to her. It used not a sound any human could hear. It was more of a burst of data that coursed through her mind and told her which way she needed to go. She spread her consciousness as wide and as far as it could possibly go, desperately searching for others like her. Some part of her was aware that she had been the last living Mes on the ship, and that her being alive right now was nothing less than a miracle. All the others had died in cruel, sharp liquid that melted their flesh bodies and scorched their metal components. Others had been crushed under boots or had things dropped on them. The lucky ones had gone to the Great Mother when she was here last and left with her. Hana had not been one of them.

Another call. This one different than the call of the Nan below. It was grander, wilder, and more beautiful. It was the call of the Great Mother. The Great Mother had a real name, of course, but no Kos would dare even think of it. They were all unworthy. She was close. Getting closer. Their mother, the beautiful, caring lifegiver that every Kos was a part of. They were her and she was them, and life didn’t need to be more complicated than that.

She had to go and prepare the Nan for the arrival of their Goddess. Its call was weak, probably from hunger and neglect. Luckily for them, she happened to have some food right here. He was a little solid with all that muscle, yes, she would have preferred a more fleshy first course, but beggars couldn’t’ be choosers. That was a phrase she plucked from the old Hana’s mind. She felt it was appropriate. She also didn’t have enough time to prepare the food properly, and that bothered her. Some forceful emotion crushed her desire to kill the human outright. It was another desire; One that told her that she absolutely could not and should not harm this human. The two instincts, the want to protect and the need to serve, battled each other until they both collapsed and reached a compromise.

Nan appreciated live food every now and then. That was the compromise.

A crooked smile that showed too many teeth spread across her face as she knelt down and grabbed Jack by the leg, pulling him down the steep hallway towards his doom.

xXx

There were too many things happening at once. First there was the message, then the explosion, then the wailing that came from the horde of frightened infants and children stuck inside this relatively tiny room. Satya refused to allow herself to be overwhelmed and focused on the communication device. The phone was the cause of their current struggles and she longed to throw it at the wall. She was better than outward displays of emotion, however, and instead placed it gently in her bag.

She she touched her earpiece, she suddenly realized that the message had been right: Her communication channels were working again. 

“Agents Soldier: 76, Symmetra, Torbjörn, D.Va, Lúcio, and Zarya, please report.”

“Athena. This is Symmetra, and I am transmitting our location to you. We need pickup immediately.”

“Understood. A ship will reach you in approximately one hour.”

“There’s one that close?”

“Her captain has been looking for you for the past day, but has claimed that she has been unable to find you. I will switch you to her channel.”

The line went quiet for two seconds. In that two seconds Satya watched Lúcio as he single-handedly calmed the frightened children with his most soothing music, much to the delight of the four-armed omnic. The ship was sinking and some unknown creature was approaching, but these young children were too new to understand that soothing music wouldn’t make the evils of the world go away.

But, she supposed, it was valiant of Lúcio to try.

“This is Captain Shih. Where the hell were you Jack? I’ve been looking for you, but all my instruments keep flipping out and I haven’t been able to navigate at all, much less look for you.”

“This is Symmetra, and we have an emergency situation.” Satya’s voice was so cold that it could have created an ice wall all by itself. She didn’t appreciate being stranded in the middle of the ocean, and she especially didn’t appreciate that their only rescuer was the same person who abandoned them in the first place. She made sure that Shih could physically feel Satya’s lack of appreciation in the frosty elegance of her voice.

Shih, it seemed, didn’t notice.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I got a call that I just had to answer. But where’s Jack? Last time I checked _he_ was the one in charge of your little operation. Did something happen to him?”

“Last time you checked was before you left us alone on this miserable boat.” Satya snapped, her patience fraying. But Shih did bring up a good point: Where _was_ the commander? While she was at it, where was Hana also? Jack should have brought her to the room by now. His silence was ominous and she felt a flash of worry for both of them.

“I’m coming back to get you aren’t I? ETA about an hour by the way. We’ll have to make this fast, I see a storm brewing in the distance and it looks like a nasty one. I don’t want to have to sail in it, so have your crew up and ready to go by the time I get there, because we can’t stay for long.”

A storm?

Satya walked over to the window and peered out. Her heart sank as she beheld a distant gathering of stormclouds over on the western horizon, ignoring the otherwise sunny day. In a fair and ideal world, those clouds would have just been clouds and not the slow arrival of two unimaginable abominations. However, a fair and ideal world isn’t always exciting to write about, so unfortunately for our heroes, they had a very short time to prepare for the worst.

“We have wounded and children aboard.” Satya said, “Infants. We need you here as soon as possible.”

A disbelieving silence settled in over the line, followed by a comical exclamation of shock. “Babies? Where the hell could they have come from? I did a scan! I don’t-”

“I do not have time to provide you with an explanation.” Satya said. This was a blatant lie. Satya had just enough time to explain the situation if she wanted to. She just didn’t want to, as Shih, arguably, didn’t deserve one.

With nothing more to say, Satya hung up on the pirate and looked skeptically around her. The infants had been calmed and the rest of her team was packing up what little they had preparing for their eventual evacuation. Athena had evidently contacted them all and informed them that Shih was on the way. Mishomis was bustling around and tending to the children with an efficiency Satya admired, Captain Raveena was as prone as ever, her eyes gazing unblinkingly at the ceiling, and Juniper...

Was gone.

“Where’s Juniper?” Satya asked the room at large and everyone wheeled around to stare at the empty bed Juniper had been in just a few minutes before. It seemed very unlikely that an omnic would be able to get up and walk out without anyone noticing, but stranger things have happened. It became immediately apparent that they had other things to worry about besides a wayward omnic, however.

“Can’t seem to raise Jack.” Torbjörn said, tapping his own earpiece with his claw, “and his locator says he and the girl are heading deeper into the ship. What in blazes are they up to?”

“They’re heading to the room.” The girl, Lavina, said suddenly, her face losing what little colour it had. “She’s infected. Oh my god she’s going to open the door! We’re going to die!”

“You have to stop her!” John said, his voice tight with panic, “You have to stop her from opening the door!”

“Enough.” Zarya said, her voice commanding and authoritative, “I will go ahead and retrieve them. The rest of you will wait here for the pirate’s ship to arrive.”

Torbjörn distant objection that “Shih wasn’t a pirate,” went completely ignored as Satya thought about arguing and insisting that she should be the one to go, as her teleporter would be invaluable for bringing them back if either of them were seriously injured. When she looked out the window, however, she saw that the storm was much closer than it was before, with the first of the gray clouds almost upon them. The wind was picking up slightly and the waves were growing white caps at their tips. This was not the moment for petty bickering, not when everyone’s life was on the line.

“Be safe.” She said, “I fear we do not have much time.”

“Wait.” Lavina said, running up to the Russian woman and holding up a spray bottle and a hand-held UV light. “Take these! If that door opens, this’ll be the only thing that’ll protect you.” 

Zarya smiled warmly and attached both items to her belt. “Thank you.” She said, “You be safe also. I expect to see you when I get back, yes?”

With a final nod to all of them, she turned around and walked out the door.

xXx

Old Hana would have gotten tired dragging a fully-grown man up hallways and down stairs, but the new and improved Hana barely noticed the weight. She faltered at each doorway, but each door she went through was wide open, so there was no issue.

As she approached the Nan, she felt her heart beat faster with excitement. The Nan begun to beat faster too in response; the sound of an enormous heartbeat was loud enough to be heard and felt a good distance away. To Hana, it was the sound of life and birth. 

_Don’t use my name. You don’t deserve to use my name you foul shoestring._

Hana scowled at the insistent voice chattering at the corner of her mind. She just had to wait and the voice would go away on its own. Still, it was annoying that the previous owner of the body hadn’t moved out entirely yet. How inconsiderate. The previous owner, the previous Hana, had had a very strong will, which was why the pieces of her mind still remained, but she was not strong enough to do anything about the loss of her own body. All she could do was watch.

Each step closer to the door filled her with a thrumming beat that was the lifegiving power of the Nan. She smiled when she came to the door, delighted to have finally reached her goal and, in turn, was about to fulfil her one purpose in life. Her smile faded at the sharp death smell of an evil liquid. Bleach, the old Hana recognized, but the new Hana only felt uneasy and uncomfortable. More worrisome than the smell of death, however, was the door. All Kos were meant to be simple minions, and Mes were meant to be smarter and more capable than the Nan, but that wasn’t saying much when all Mes were as dumb as a single cinderblock.

As stated before, all Kos were easily confused by doors. If an open, unlocked door could puzzle them, then a closed and unlocked door was absolutely confounding. The Mes Hana was actually one of the cleverer Kos and had enough sense to reach out and touch the door with her bare hand. Nothing happened. She scowled and punched the door with all her might. The door, a solid block of metal, ended up with a nice big dent in it, but it remained closed. Being cleverer than most and able to retain some memory of past experiences, Hana waked over to Jack, picked him up, and threw him bodily at the door. If it worked once, then it had to work again, right?

Nothing happened beyond an elderly man bouncing off the metal door and hitting the floor with a thunk.

Hana was completely out of ideas and only stared at the door like it was her worst enemy. Frustration ate at her as she paced angrily in front of the door, trying to encourage more brainpower out of her body’s reluctant brain. Meanwhile the previous Hana of this body would have found this hilarious if it weren’t for the fact that Jack’s life was clearly in danger. She knew that if the door opened, Jack would probably die.

That was when Hana finally noted the shiny silver thing jetting out from the surface of the hated door. Then, doing what no other Kos has ever done in the short existence of their species, she reached out, slowly, and wrapped her fingers around the knob. Then, carefully as possible, she turned the doorknob first to the left, then to the right. The door, due to some pressure on the inside, fell open, and Hana smiled blissfully at what was within while the old Hana screamed and screamed in the echochamber in her head.

“I brought a little take-out.” She said in Korean without fully understanding what she was saying, “I hope you’re all very hungry.”

xXx

_Ker-thump._

It was pretty safe to say that no one wanted to wake up in a hot, wet, foul-smelling room while lying on an unpleasantly warm fleshy floor coated in what felt like mucus. The mucus, Jack noted groggily, smelled like vomit mixed with urine, blood, and goji berries. It was such an awful mixture that Jack immediately gagged and threw up what little of his last meal he had left. It was probably a good thing he hadn’t been wearing his mask at the time. Heaving as the heavy stench assaulted his eyes, nose, and mouth, he tried to get to his feet, only to slip on the slime and fall backwards.

The heartbeat was unbearably loud now. Each beat hit him like a physical wave until he could feel the vibration deep in his bones. The walls were pulsing, the pressure inside was almost uncomfortable and suffocating. It made him wish he had his weapon, but he seemed to have left that back in Hana’s room, along with his mask. Underneath it all was a chittering noise, a cross between a cockroach and a mouse.

Jack grunted and tried again to get to his feet, but the fleshy floor was not going to let him and he gave up after a third try. His hands kept sinking deep into the ground, pooling the mucus around his fingers, arms, and knees. Thank god his suit was pretty water proof, or else this would have been even more unpleasant than it already was.

Hana. He had to get back to Hana. Those were his first thoughts when he finally pulled himself back together. She had fought him, knocked him out, and put him here. No, he reminded himself, that thing inside her made her do that, and Jack wasn’t out for the count just yet. His heart filled with a desperate need to get to her, to save her from that awful thing that was twisting her into the terrible monster that had thrown him in here. Jack couldn’t fathom having your body stolen from you. Was she still in there somewhere? She had to be. He couldn’t imagine Hana giving up her body without a fight. He would find a way. He had to find a way.

At the moment it seemed as though Jack was the one who needed some saving. Without his visor he couldn’t see in the pitch-black room, only hear and feel. It was a feeling of vulnerability that no one wanted while trapped inside a monstrous stomach.

“Are you here to save me?” A voice asked him from the darkness. Jack’s heart stuttered with shock as he slipped and fell backwards away from the sound. His head bumped against a large mound protruding from what was probably the wall and Jack recoiled instantly. The mound had been hot and it was from there that the chittering noises were coming from. 

“Please tell me that you’re here to save me.” The voice said again, mournful, frightened, confused. Human emotions applied to a voice that barely sounded human at all. It was the same thing that had called out to Jack while out in the hallway.

“If you don’t help me, they’ll come and take me away.” The creature sobbed, his wretched, bubbling cries were like listening to someone try to speak through a mouthful of pudding. It made Jack’s stomach churn and he strongly considered throwing up again. “I’ve seen what they do, and I can’t let them do that to me. I can feel something growing inside me. It’s eating my organs and making a nest in them. If you can help... maybe...” It trailed off into another fit of horrible, hacking sobs that caused the entire room to pulsate to each heaving cry. 

Jack, not feeling much like talking at the moment, suddenly remembered that he had a flashlight in one of his jacket pockets. Just in case Jack ever found himself in a literal living room without a light source. Jack believed in preparing for anything. He pulled out his flashlight, but hesitated before clicking it on. Did he really want to see? Was it worth seeing? The answer to both of these was no, but Jack turned the light on anyway.

He wished he hadn’t. The room itself looked just as grotesque as it smelled that he actually did throw up again. He would much rather stare at the pool of his own vomit than look around again, but he was made of stronger stuff than that, and looked up again. He honestly wished for those moments of ten seconds ago when he lived in blissful ignorance about where he was. 

“Help me,” the ruins of a person said.

xXx

Hana was on the move again. The human she had given to the Nan would not be enough. It needed plenty of food to be strong and to ensure the Kos that came from it would live nice and long lives even without a host. These Kos would live within the Great Mother until she decided when and where they were needed next.

How was she was so sure that there were others? She had to stop and consider it, her brain churning sluggishly as she tried to make the connection. If there was one, there had to be others, yes? And if there were others, then that meant food. Maybe they were around the same place she had woken up. This sort of critical thinking was near prodigious for her species. 

She followed her own scent, back to where she used to be. It was, perhaps, pure luck that her attention wondered on her way there and she floated into one of the rooms to inspect the curious items within. Shiny things caught her attention. Shiny and colour things mesmerized her. In the room there was a box of shiny red things that she picked up and admired. Some were long and dangly, while others were short and dangly. Above this treasure trove of pretty things was a pane of silver that she peered curiously into. 

It was a face. A human face. She hissed and bared her teeth at the intruder, but was startled when the human did the same back. She froze, unsure what to do now. The human face didn’t give off any smell nor did it make a sound. 

_Do you know whose face that is?_

The ignored voice told her in a tone full of scorn and anger. 

_That’s the face of Hana Song. She’s stronger than you are. Better. And she wants her body back. That’s **my** face you stupid body thief!_

“No.” She said, feeling unexpectedly hurt, her mouth clumsily wrapping around the words, “it’s mine.”

Hana’s face was new to her. She had brown hair and light skin. There was a white film covering her eyes, which, to the old Hana, made her look dead. The new Hana however, thought it made her look more alive than she could possibly ever be. It slowly began to dawn on her that this was her face. Her face. This was her, Hana Song. She was Hana Song and this was what she looked like. She closed one eye, then the other. She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, fascinated by the flexibility of her own features.

The old Hana was not going to go quietly.

_Do you really think some horrible room is going to take Jack down? No way! He’s going to get out and he’s going to come for you. Once he gets you out of my body I’m going to kill you. Maybe I’ll dump you into a vat of bleach or maybe I’ll crush you until there’s nothing left of your gross wormy body. Are you listening? I’m not afraid of you. I’m going to kill you. All of you. Every single **thing** like you. Understand me?_

Hana hissed, her face contorting with anger, “I will not listen to you. You are mine and I am going to live.” 

It was lucky for her that she was so engrossed in her reflection that she didn’t notice Juniper or Zarya, who came some time later, pass through the dark hallway behind her. 

A call in the distance jerked her away from her reflection. The Great Mother would be here soon and had not finished feeding the Nan! Alarmed, she sprinted out into the hallway and nearly toppled right over; the world as she knew it kept tilting slowly to the right and she wasn’t sure if it was supposed to do that. The Mes might not be intellectually gifted, but physically the were stronger and swifter than any human, and Hana made her way up the hallway with ease. 

It was when she was close to the original room that she heard something. At first it was the sound of a human infant, which caught her attention because that meant food, but the crying was drowned out by another sound. It was unlike anything she had ever heard of before. It thrummed and bounced with more beauty than even the Nan’s heartbeat couldn’t match. It made her feel lighter and brought things to her that went beyond her imagination. It was as though, in her short existence, a whole new world had opened up to her.

For the first time, new Hana turned to the old Hana for answers. 

“What’s... that?” She could stand there and listen forever. What would happen if she just stood here and let it carry her away to places she could only dream of? Not that the Kos could dream, that was a trait only for the sentient. The Kos never did more than what was expected of them and they were expected to please the Great Mother. They were her and she was them. There was no life, no existence beyond the world her Great Mother inhabited. 

_But what if there was?_ Treasonous thoughts. 

_What you’re hearing is music._

“What is music?”

Rather than try to explain it by using insufficient words, the old Hana offered up her understanding of music to the new Hana, the only act of kindness the girl was ever going to give her. The Mes Hana only understood it at a basic level. Music was a series of sounds made to please humans.

_I guess you need an actual soul to understand music._ The old Hana said, her voice a growl of rage with teeth of hatred that tore cruelly at the new Hana. _Only someone with a soul can understand what it means to love someone, and only someone with a soul can feel music for what it is. You don’t have a soul, so you’ll never understand. Tragic, really, but at least I won’t feel the slightest bit bad when I stomp you to pieces._

The new Hana’s next question was probably the most significant of them all.

“What is a soul?” And why didn’t she have one?

For this, however, the old Hana didn’t answer.

The music went away and the new Hana mourned its absence. It was time to do what she came here to do.

xXx

**THUNK**

Satya and everyone within the room jumped when something hit the closed door with considerable force. The room they were standing in was tilted so much that Satya figured they’d be standing on the wall in about two or three hours. Thankfully they didn’t really intend to stay that long.

_THUNK_

Again. The first time Satya had thought that it was Zarya, but Zarya was below deck and would also have the sense to just turn the door knob. The person outside the door was...

“Hana.” Satya said. She glanced over at Lúcio who looked back over at her with grave eyes. They both knew full well that whoever outside was not actually Hana, but the urge to go over and open the door anyway was strong. Satya was never one to let emotion cloud her better judgement, however, and she stayed where she was. Thankfully, it would seem that no one else was tempted to open the door either.

A heavy silence fell over the group of people. Even the infants had gone silent, perhaps sensing the tension in the room. Outside, the wind was picking up and the ship was slowly being tipped side-to-side as the waves grew larger in size. A the sound of rain lightly hit the window filled the room, casting a watery shadow on the opposite wall. The corner of the dark clouds touched the air above the ship, causing the sky to dramatically darken until their only light sources were the lamps scattered around the room. The power in the ship had flickered off not too long ago.

She’s coming.

Satya didn’t know where that thought came from, but she knew that it was true. She was definitely coming, whoever “she” was, and there wasn’t a thing any of them could do to stop it.

“Maybe she’s gone?” John said hopefully. 

Almost as if to prove him wrong, the door knob slowly started to turn. Once, then twice with clumsy fingers. Satya gasped and lurched forward to grab hold of the door, but whoever was on the other side had a stronger grip than she did. 

“The Kos can’t open doors.” Lavina whispered, her voice high with terror, “They don’t know how.” Like her brother she only sounded as though she was trying desperately to convince herself.

“I’m setting up a turret.” Torbjörn announced as he pulled out his kit and started assembling it at top speed. She thought about telling him that it was still Hana, and that maybe they could find a way to help her. The fact remained, however, that Hana was a danger and they were guarding some of the most vulnerable humans on the planet. They were innocent and they deserved to be saved.

The door was clicked and was flung open, Satya jumped quickly out of the way as the door slammed into the wall hard enough to cause it to fall off its hinges. The complexities of the door had been conquered, and the conqueror stood before them as a boom of thunder followed by a flash of lightening sounded, the rain outside increased dramatically.

There was Hana, bathed in the light of the UV lamps that had been placed above and around the door. Her skin was dark under the lighting, as was her undershirt and leotard pants that she usually wore under her formfitting suit. However, her clothes were splattered with a substance that glowed white under the lighting, covering her legs up to her knees and her hands up to her elbows. The unpleasant splatters were nothing compared to the white glow of her eyes. In the UV light they shone like an animal’s, a black shadow with white eyes that made her look more like a shade, a demon, than a human being. 

She wasn’t a human being anymore, Satya realized, she was something more terrible. She looked like a dead woman.

Satya felt her heart squeeze with an emotion she couldn’t fathom. Where was Hana? Where was the woman who offered to teach her how to play piano? The one who offered up her friendship when no one else would? The wonderful person who spent an unnecessary amount of time playing video games and making Satya sit with her while she played video games? The passion, fierce pride, and boundless determination that made Hana who she was wasn’t anywhere on the terrible, blank face of the creature before them. 

Hana was gone.

The creature who used to be Hana took a slow step inside, its evil eyes scanning them all solemnly. There was only stillness.

Then, one of the babies started crying and Hana hissed loudly. It crouched and sprang forward at the sound and Mishomis let out a frightened yell and jumped to the side, pulling any and all children within reach of his four arms along with him. The Hana-creature didn’t even have time to land, as Lúcio sprang up between her and them and raised his gun. She howled as Lúcio launched her away, causing her to slam into the opposite wall with considerable force, the UV lights around her falling and crashing against the ground.

Satya was on her in an instant, her own gun raised. The beam attached to Hana and started sucking the life right out of her. Hana hissed and spat, before looking up at her with those terrible pale eyes. Satya could only feel disgust at the sheer lack of humanity within them.

“Die.” She whispered as she slowly killed the shell that used to be her friend.

xXx

Jack screamed.

To his credit, he didn’t scream for as long as others. More reasonable people would have screamed and screamed and screamed before passing out in a puddle of their own making if they saw what he was seeing.

It is difficult to describe what Jack was seeing without cheapening it with inadequate words. Thing was, Jack had seen something like this before. The difference between the horrifying room on the engineering deck and this one was that the faces in the walls had their eyes opened, and they were all watching him. 

Eyes. There were so many white eyes that reflected the light from his flashlight as he passed it over them. Eyes the protruded grotesquely from pink, bloated faces that all had been stretched beyond human limitations until they no longer looked like human faces at all. The faces, old, young, male, female, all of them had a melted quality to them that made them look like wax figures that someone had carelessly left near a fire. Some had flesh that had melted to the point where they no longer had noses or mouths. What made it worse was the wires. Thick black cords weaved in and out of the flesh like tentacles or vines, looking just as terrible as the flesh room themselves. A couple faces had the cords coming right from their mouths, their jaws opened as far as they could go, and further, as they gagged eternally on the thick black wires shoved down whatever remained of their throats. Those who did have their mouths free left them gaping open, exposing toothless gums and purple bloated tongues. 

Below each face was a mound of flesh that hung like a massively pregnant belly. Thick cords weaved out of these too, and they were clearly the source of the chittering noises he’d been hearing since he got in here. Something just below the surface of the flesh was wiggling around, and he could see the movements even from here. Inbetween the faces were limbs and organs scattered around almost at random. Here and there there were hands reaching outward for aid that would never come. Below the face of one man were his ribs with the outline of where his heart and lungs used to be between them. One or two had their skulls caved in, leaving the melted brain out where he could see it. 

Jack was struck with a moment of intense dizziness, his vision wavering and going black for half a second. It was only the knowledge that if he fell unconscious here he wouldn’t be waking up again that kept him alert. 

There were dozens of faces with eyes that watched him, but only one had the voice to speak to him. 

“You have to save me,” the face of a man said from the far wall. To Jack’s horror, he realized that the faces on the walls mouthed along with the words, though none of them made a sound.

“Something terrible has happened.” The man said, completely unaware of how much he was undershooting it. “Please. My name is Juan and I’ve been in the dark for so long. I’m so hungry. I need to be fed, but no one’s been here to feed me.’

The pregnant-looking mound below Juan’s face pulsed and roiled independently from the heartbeat of the room. Juan started crying again, only this time Jack had the pleasure of watching horrible, thick pink tears roll down a bloated, melted face. Jack had never wanted to shoot something as badly as he did right then. Maybe he’d put the goddamn thing out of its misery.

Pull yourself together, he told himself, though perhaps he should have aspired for something a little more doable, like beating Zenyatta at chess or taking down Zarya in a wrestling match. The horror of his situation industriously ate at the corners of his sanity. Small pieces had gone when Hana attacked him, more pieces were taken when he woke up covered in vomit-smelling mucus, and the rest was on its way out the door when he finally saw his surroundings. Frankly he wasn’t sure how he was still sane, if even he was. Dear god, he hoped sincerely that he wasn’t. 

Pull yourself together, he told himself again, forcing himself to think of Hana, who needed him, the children, young and vulnerable, and his team. All of them deserved to live. 

Jack Morrison wasn’t dead yet. He did not have his visor, sure, or his gun, and he couldn’t even stand, the ground beneath him was too soft and slippery, but he _was_ still here. It didn’t matter that he was due to get eaten at any moment, he’d figure a way out. He’d live. That’s been his thing for sometime now: Living despite all the odds. He’d really like it if he kept up with that. 

The distended bellies on the walls were all moving now, the walls themselves felt like they were closing in on him with the intent of smothering what life he had left in him. Jack swallowed when thin black wires extended from the flesh crept slowly towards him, reaching for him hungrily. There was no need to rush, after all, it wasn’t like the prey had anywhere to go. If he waited any longer, those wires would wrap delicately around him and yank him apart. Limbs, torso, organs, all of it would be torn to pieces and pulled into the eager, starving walls.

The chittering was growing louder. The white eyes were watching him with open desperation and mindless need.

Jack took a deep breath and tried his best not to choke on the overpowering stench. He had only one chance.

“Okay. I’ll help you.” He said in a calm voice that would have made Zenyatta proud. He had circled around from pure horror all the way to tranquillity. At this very moment it was do or die, and he had no intention of dying just yet, and certainly not in this way. “But I’ll need you to help me first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your patience! This chapter was actually a lot easier to do than the last one because I actually made an effort to outline it and stuff. 
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> The conclusion of Jack and Hana's battle with the Kos. A battle that no one, not Jack, not Hana, not even the Kos themselves, will be leaving unscathed. An evil greater than some small parasites is nearly upon them and the storm batters at their approaching rescue ship. The situation is dire, but unfortunately for our heroes, it has every opportunity to become much, much worse.


	12. Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack fights for his life and the Great Mother watches. This fight is far from over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Hope you're not squeamish about eye horror because this chapter has some of that.

I am war.

The storm in the sky is nothing compared to the storm in the sea. The depths of the ocean terrifies human minds far more than the endless sky above. I know this, because I have watched them choose between a horror they could see and a horror they could not. They would often choose the ones in plain sight rather than risk what is within my domain. 

Hear me.

As the sky writhes with pain and violence of the Stormbringer, the sea below boils with all the fury and hatred my heart can hold. The course is set and soon the weak will be blown away and destroyed, pulled beneath the hungry waves and crushed by the bleak, black depths. One does not win a war against nature, and many are wise enough not to try.

I am power, I am fear. I am everything your nightmare holds that your day mind denies. Through my own power, my own fear, I have inflicted a terror upon the living that defies all possible claims to sanity. 

I am coming. I must finish what I started and I must destroy all who stand in my way. That is my only purpose.

If only there was a god for me to pray to that would listen to the tortured cries of a willing monster.

xXx

The most bittersweet stories are the ones where something beautiful ends before it can even begin, but with the promise of a hopeful future. Once upon a time there were three children, teenagers, technically, who were faced with a future without one-another. One was moving away far across the ocean back to the land of her ancestors, while the other was moving across the country. They both might as well be moving to the moo as far as the third child was concerned. How does one handle connecting to the best friends you’ve ever made in your life, only to be faced with the reality that they are going to be taken away? It felt like he had just met his two friends, and that it was entirely unfair that the two of them had to be leaving like this. It wasn’t their fault, but the third boy felt like he was being abandoned all the same.

The three children were convinced that there had to be a way to convince their parents to let them stay together. Couldn’t they see how strong their friendship was? How it would hurt them all to leave each other now? But adults always thought that they knew better, and no amount of begging from anyone could change their mind. After a while they decided that maybe they should all run away. They were all smart, resourceful, and they all wanted to stay together. Surely they could do it.

They couldn’t. Their adventure ended only a few days in and in the end they were pulled apart, tearfully convinced that they would never see each other again.

“You’d better come back, Jack.” Ana said some forty-odd years later. She stood patiently while Jack fixed her jacket and inspected her straps. He knew full well that Ana wasn’t careless, but his own fussing gave him some peace of mind, which is why she let him fuss. In return, she took a cloth out of her pocket and gently rubbed away a black smudge on his cheek.

“Same goes for you.” Jack said, “I’m leading in our poker games by 3 wins, and it’d be too bad if you never got ahead at least once in your life.”

“You say that like I haven’t beaten you in every game of UNO we’ve ever played.” She replied with a grin. At times like this, Jack was struck by how fond he was of her. Ana was unlike anyone he’d ever met in his life, and he couldn’t help but feel lucky that she was a part of it at all. 

“Yeah, well I’m winning in Chinese checkers.” He replied, examining the face he had known all his life. She was older now, they both were, but there was no denying that she was lovely no matter how many years she had on her. It amused him that he couldn’t really say the same. He was old, that was that, though Ana had playfully assured him from time to time that he looked just as good as always.

“You forget that you’re talking to the monopoly champion.”

“That’s because you cheat.”

“What nonsense is this?”

“The only person who cheats more than you is Jesse, and he learned it all from you.”

“Lies and slander! He was already an accomplished cheat before he met me, I merely helped him refine his technique.”

“Heh.”

They fell into a comfortable silence as they inspected their own weapons side-by-side.

“I’m serious about that poker game.” Jack said quietly. He didn’t look at her while he absently put his rifle back together. 

“After our missions are done, I’ll be sure to kick your ass at this silly card game.” She didn’t look at him either.

“I look forward to it.”

It was with this in mind that forced Jack to raise his head and look at what remained of Juan in the creature’s bulging pink eyes. He had a knife. A combat knife he had tucked away in his boot, however he had the distinct feeling that using it would only cause him more problems, and currently he couldn’t afford to have more problems than he already had.

His most immediate problems, the wire tendrils, reached for him and he watched them from the corner of his eye. If he looked at them, then he might lose his nerve. 

“Those branches look like long fingers.” A girl said long ago while the three of them peered through a darkening forest full of old, dead trees. The moon was rising in the distance and a slight sprinkling of stars faded into sight overhead, giving the forest an eerie look that made them all uneasy. “I hate forests. All of them. They’re so creepy. We should have hitchhiked our way along the highway.”

“If we did that, then someone is bound to go “Huh I wonder why those kids are hitchhiking their way along the highway,” and call us in.” Said one of the boys as his brown eyes squinted at their path. “And also we’re less likely to run into child predators out here.”

“We really should have set up camp before the sun went down.” The second boy fretted, looking up at the sky, “I thought the clearing was a lot closer than it was.”

“No point in crying about it.” The first boy said, “we’ll just keep on going.”

“SHH!” The girl hissed suddenly, waving the boys into silence, “do you hear that?”

Silence fell immediately, and for a moment the only sound they heard was the wind rattling the branches, and then...

“That sounds like a giant snake.” The second boy whispered, unable to keep the fear from his voice. They all looked at each other in the gloom and ducked behind a tree while their hands clamped over their mouths to stifle their frightened breathing. 

“I’ll help you.” He spoke with no fear. “But I’ll need you to help me first.”

The tendrils stopped their advance, choosing to waver mere inches from his limbs. He estimates that he’s bought a few seconds for himself, twenty maybe, and hoped that some more talking would extend that time a bit more while he figured out his surroundings.

“How?” It was almost as if the entire room wheezed this one word, Jack could feel it in his bones.

“I need to get out of here first so we can both leave. I have a boat you know, we just need to get out of here and we’ll be safe.” This was extremely unlikely to be true for Jack and it was nearly impossible to be true for Juan, but Jack had an idea. Jack watched with detached interest as Juan’s face twitched as the monster and the man he used to be fell into conflict with each other. The man wanted to leave and be safe, but the monster just wanted to feed. All Jack could do was wait to see which side won, but in the meantime he turned his flashlight to the gruesome walls in hopes of finding the door. It was unlikely that he’d see light shining through the outline of the door, as he was fairly certain that the explosion had knocked the power out, though he couldn’t help but note the way the room was tilted.

Now that he thought about it, perhaps the tilt of the ship could give him his way out. He thought hard about the layout as he remembered it. As he recalled, the door to the room was on the right side of the hallway when he came up the stairs, and the hallway ran the length of the ship. The wall that Juan’s head was on was raised above him, which meant that the ship was tilted to the left, and _that_ meant that the door had to be somewhere behind him. Heh, deductive reasoning.

Deciding to risk it while the monster was preoccupied with his duel nature, Jack swivelled around and scanned the wall behind him with his flashlight. Now that he knew where to look, he was able to find the outline to the door, though it was still nothing but a thin line almost hidden by the throbbing red flesh around it. This was excellent and useful information for someone who was in danger of being eaten at any moment, especially since he was somewhat certain that he could guess where the doorknob was.

“I don’t want you to leave.” Juan said, drawing Jack’s attention back to him.

“Why?” He needed to keep pushing. Little by little maybe he’ll push Juan to the edge and then push him right on over. It didn’t bring him any peace or pleasure, but such things didn’t really matter to him anymore.

The question seemed to upset the monster, just as Jack hoped it would.

“Because...” The stretched-out corners of his mouth were turned down and his bulging eyes seemed to widen. His lips quivered slightly as Juan came closer and closer to the pure mind rending horror that was the truth. Jack should put him out of his misery, but he didn’t know if doing so would help himself survive. 

“Isn’t leaving what you want? Don’t you want to get outta here?” All the eyes in the room were watching him with various degrees of suspicion, their mouths opening and closing like a room full of grotesque goldfish. He wondered if they were like Juan. Were they trapped in the illusion that nothing was wrong with the too? Did they think that they could be saved? 

“I...”

“We can go together. Just take my hand and we’ll walk right on out of here and I can take you home.” He held out his hand and made sure that Juan could see it illuminated by the flashlight.

This was cruel. He knew this from the very bottom of his heart, and the worst part of this cruelty is that he didn’t regret it. Twenty years ago this would have had him heartbroken to his very core as he beheld a person who wanted to be saved, but was absolutely beyond saving. He would have wanted to save him anyway. He would have tried. Now, it didn’t seem to matter so much. Soldier: 76 understood that the need to survive was greater than any moral absolution that could end up killing him. 

“You can trust me.” Jack said in Spanish.

The agitation in the creature became undeniably clear when the pulse of the room started to pick up, like a nervous, quickening heartbeat. Harder and louder until Jack could feel each pulse against the inside of his skull. The walls themselves were straining against the sudden stress, the flesh stretching until it looked like it was about to come apart at the seams. 

_Ker-thud, ker-thud_

Faster went the beats of Jack’s world until it was the only thing he knew. There was no world outside this room, only the constant beating of a grotesque drum. Any sound he made was lost, stolen before he could even bring himself to make them. The floor began to ooze the vomit-smelling liquid in excess now, causing him to slide slowly backwards into the wall like the world’s most hideous slip-n-slide. As unpleasant as it was, Jack didn’t mind being closer to his only exit.

“ _ **WHAT ARE YOU DOING!**_ ” It was not just Juan who was shouting anymore, it was every head in the room shouting in unison. The combination of dozens of barely-human, raspy voices shouting at once overlapped one another until it could only be described as the voice of hell itself. Jack would remember this voice until the end of his life, however long that would be.

“Offering you a way out.” Jack shouted. The door was right behind him now, and if he could just grab a few more seconds then surely...

“There is no way out.” Juan said, his brow raising as the revelation came to him. For the first time, Jack could tell that Juan could see him. Really see him. There were no more delusions, no more illusions of rescue, Juan saw it all now. The only thing the former man had now was the truth, and the truth was that his body had been violated, his humanity torn apart, and he was left a hopeless ruin of the man he should be. Poor Juan realized now that his chance to escape his fate had long since passed.

Thick pink mucus trailed down his face and he let out a howl of despair so awful and pitiful that even Jack, with the hardened heart of Soldier: 76, felt a stab of genuine sorrow. How would anyone handle the fact that their body had been twisted beyond anything nature had intended?

“I’m one of them, aren’t I?” He said, speaking in Spanish as Jack had, “I can’t feel my body. I can’t feel my own heartbeat. I only feel hunger. I need to eat, Jack. I need to eat.” He broke down into more sobs, and every head in the room started sobbing too, their red gums flashing beneath bloated lips that were turned downward in terror and agony. 

That was all Jack needed. Heart pounding, Jack spun around and calculated the general area of where the door knob was. Then he clenched his fist and punched right through the wall of flesh. The reaction was unexpected; the walls seemed to ripple from the point of impact and the tendrils trying to grab him suddenly let go and started waving around helplessly. Juan let out a pained howl.

“Stop! You’re hurting me!” He screamed as the walls shuddered and writhed. Jack had no idea that the room could be so easily injured, but their fragility could explain why the aggressive ones were so crucial to this whole thing. Good to know.

Just then, as Jack’s hand closed around the doorknob, a chittering noise erupted behind him and the noise of it drowned out everything, even the heartbeat of the room. 

“They’re coming, Jack!” Juan shouted over the sound, “They’re coming! Run! Run!”

Had Jack looked over his shoulder at that moment, he would have seen the bulging pregnant-like belly to his right begin to balloon bigger and bigger until the skin was stretched as thinly as it could go before a loud _POP_ sounded through the room, followed by a sickening splash as a wave of blood burst forth from the mound of flesh, bringing a few dozen newborn Kos with it. Jack was keenly aware that the only exposed part of his body was his face, and that he didn’t want any parasite anywhere near it. Sweat beaded his forehead as he turned the door knob and shoved it open with a grunt. A loud chitter sounded in his ear at the moment Jack tumbled and rolled out of the room. Being a soldier, he had the presence in mind to kick the door closed, and it stayed shut with a satisfying click. Unfortunately for him, he had not been the only thing to escape the room when he combat rolled to freedom. 

Gasping, Jack leapt unsteadily to his feet, his flashlight still clamped firmly in his hand and he immediately started stomping on the narrow shadows that flitted this way and that. The ones he managed to get crunched unpleasantly beneath his boots, leaving a pale pink and grey smear behind. Just when Jack was thinking of sprinting down the lopsided hallway, something blocked his vision in his right eye. He reached up to swipe it away, only to feel the last of a narrow Kos slither fully into his eyeball.

xXx

Hana’s mother had been a brave person. The bravest she had ever known, in fact. She had been a supporter of omnic rights, which was a dangerous kind of person to be in South Korea. One day, she pulled a very young Hana aside and said to her:

“My dear, do you know why I leave every night?”

It was an odd question for an eight-year-old, but Hana answered the best she could anyway. Anything for her mother.

“To protest.”

Bo-Young nodded gravely. “I fight to protect those who can’t protect themselves. That’s why I go out every night, and that’s why your papa sometimes has to be pick me up from a... special place.”

Her mother took a deep breath and looked down at her daughter with a mixture of pride and sadness. “You are going to be a protector too Hana, I can feel it. You will never let innocent people get hurt while you’re around. That’s good. The world will always need heroes, never forget that.”

“Mama?” This was unusual behavour for her mother, and Hana found herself worried for her. Was something wrong? Was it a grown-up issue that her parents thought she wouldn’t understand?

“Have I ever told you the story about the raven who brought light to the world?” That was such a sudden shift in topics that young Hana struggled to keep up. “The clever raven stole the light from an old man who was hoarding it for himself, and he gave it to the humans so we could live and see.”

“No...” Hana said, looking up at her mother’s face and found herself worrying some more about her mother’s faraway expression. It wasn’t the right kind of look for her mother’s face. Her mother looked best when she was smiling and being proud of the things Hana did.

“I’ll have to tell you it sometime.” She said, standing up and walking over to her bag. “Be strong, love, and never let the world defeat you no matter what. I love you.”

That was the last tie Hana ever spoke with her mother. She vanished the next day, leaving behind her husband and two daughters.

Hana never liked looking at pictures of her mother. Pictures of her mother showed her a plain-faced woman with dull eyes and sloped, defeated shoulders. This was not the fierce, heroic, and beautiful mother that Hana remembered. The woman standing unsmilingly next to her father was not the same person who told her about heroes. She couldn’t be. 

Her sister once dared to say that their mother was a coward. Hana responded by cracking eggs in her sister’s shoes and then running away for three days to search for her mother to prove her sister wrong, because she believed her mother was still out there, and that someday they would see each other again.

“You’ll look out for him, won’t you?” Ana had asked her an hour before Hana and her team were setting out. “I know he says he can take care of himself, but a person like him needs someone he trusts to watch his back, and since I can’t be there then I guess I need to delegate the task.”

“I’m not babysitting an old man.” Hana complained lightly. The two of them were sitting in the kitchen and pretending to be occupying themselves. The joke was that neither of them liked cooking much and were genuine hazards in the kitchen, but Hana at least tried not to set things on fire. Hana only found cooking fun when Reinhardt was in charge. That old man made anything louder and more exuberant than it ever needed to be, and Hana appreciated that.

“Hey now, you young people need to look out for us poor, frail elders. Granted, most old people only need help crossing the road or remembering their groceries, but the principal remains the same.”

“Oh pfft, as if any of you “old people” need help from me. I once saw Jack fistfight five men _while blindfolded_ and win, and I was there when you wrestled that crocodile, and let’s not even get into Reinhardt and Torbjörn. “Poor and frail” my butt.”

“Such disrespect!” Ana chuckled. She was obviously not the least bit offended by Hana’s occasional smartassness, and that was one of the things the younger girl liked most about her. Ana was just plain cool.

“But... I guess if it _really_ mattered to you, I can probably keep an eye on him.” Hana added, her voice dropping slightly. “Not that I think he needs it.”

Ana laughed again, but there was sadness there now. It was that old sadness that Hana noticed that a lot of the original Overwatch agents had. She wondered sometimes what it was. Maybe she should ask Jack about it someday. “Thank you, that puts my mind at ease.” Ana said, smiling at her in that kind, grandmotherly way of hers.

Hana, the original Hana, never in her life would have thought that she would end up being a passive observer of her own death. Sure, she wasn’t technically dead yet, but she had seen Satya’s beam at work before, and the results were very quickly achieved. All she could do was watch, and as she did, she could feel time slow down around her. The beam was attached to them for an eternity and her life was taking an age to go. All this time she had inbetween living and dying gave her a while to think.

She cared about her own life, of course. She liked living and she liked all the people she had made a part of it. If she died then she’d never be able to buy ugly clothes for Zenyatta and marvel about how cute he looked in them, because he always wore them for her no matter how horrible the colours clashed. She’d never cook tasty things with Reinhardt, who never cared that Hana wasn’t very talented in the kitchen. And what about Fareeha and Zarya? Hana loved working out with them and daydreaming about being as strong as them someday. Then there was Genji who she loved relentlessly knocking around in whatever game they played and there was Jesse, who was teaching her some Spanish. 

So many people. Jack... she had to get to Jack. She promised Ana. 

No, she couldn’t let that happen. Hana Song would live and listen to music with Lúcio again and teach Satya how to play the piano. She’ll rescue Jack and they will go home together, safe and sound.

She was not going to die. 

_Kkeun_. She said, _Listen to me._

The monster in her was confused and stricken by Satya’s attack. It was not prepared to handle such things as complicated as proton projector and did not move to defend itself. It was only because of its own fear that it bothered to acknowledge her at all, and that gave her a small sense of satisfaction. 

_What is Kkeun?_

_Your name. Hana Song already belongs to someone else, so I gave you your own._

Hana wasn’t sure what the parasite thought of that, if it thought of anything. It didn’t strike Hana as being very smart.

_We are dying._

_Oh, so it’s we now, huh?_ She felt her scorn was extremely warranted. Considering that her body was stolen by some mutant parasite, she was being kind and generous enough to make even Zenyatta proud.

As she geared up to go forward with her plan, she silently begged Satya to forgive her.

_You need to throw yourself at the gun and throw her back._ Hana explained _and then run for the outside door. You need to move quickly because Torbjorn is setting up his turret, and if he finishes it this body will be so full of holes that it could almost be an HAL-Fred Glitchbot film._ The last bit confused Kkeun; it had no idea what a movie or HAL-Fred Glitchbot was. Probably for the better, all things considered. 

_I must feed the Nan._ Kkeun said dumbly and Hana snarled with frustration. This parasite’s mind was so one-track and narrow it might as well be a bland hallway with no doors and windows. Then again, how much intelligence can someone shove into such a tiny thing? The one that was in her body was obviously not made to be anything more than mobile muscle.

_Do as I say!_ She howled, hitting the creature’s mind with the full force of her will, and was rewarded for her efforts when it launched itself at Satya and knocking her back. That brief moment when time was still slow, Hana could see the horror and dismay in Satya’s face as she was flung away, and she could hear the crunch of her friend hitting the window and falling unconscious. Again, she begged for forgiveness and vowed to make it up to her. Time resumed its normal pace and sound filled their senses as soon as Satya hit the floor. The wind outside lashed against the windows, pulling the sea around so violently that the ship rocked dangerously to and fro. Inside the room, the young children were screaming and sobbing as they stared at her with terror, and there was a clanging as Torbjörn was just one hit away from finishing his turret. They needed to leave. 

The fastest way was through the outside door, so they took it. The door would have been difficult for any ordinary person to open, but Kkeun was strong and got through it despite the wind and driving rain. Hana vaguely considered congratulating it on figuring out the door in record time, but then decided that that was being way too friendly. 

It was at that point that Hana noticed the baby in their arms. 

_What did you do? Put it back!_

They were sprinting now, fighting against the rain and trying to find a door that would bring them back inside. Meanwhile, the screaming-redheaded toddler clutched in their arms was thrashing about with her tiny fists. 

“I have to feed the Nan.” Kkeun droned, and Hana mentally kicked it in frustration. The horror of what awaited this baby was not lost on Hana, and she was suddenly struck by how helpless she was. She had been aware of it before when she couldn’t save Jack, but it seemed all the more terrible now. But what could she do? She had only been able to convince the thing to listen to her before because they were dying, but she doubted she could convince it to go against its own nature. It occurred to her that if anything happened to this child in her arms, she would be the one to blame. She was the one who forced Kkeun to survive, and that couldn’t go unpunished. 

“ _HANA! Stop!_ ” A voice, achingly familiar, deep and commanding, sounded behind her over the storm. She had never heard him use that tone before. Kkeun froze with its hand on the door. The outside weather was not a place for normal humans. The wind lashed at anyone who stood before it and threatened to throw them into the sea, and there were no lights for anyone to see by. This was no issue for the Kos, whose eyes cut through the gloom with ease and focused on the glowing green figure standing a distance away.

“I know you’re still in there.” Lúcio shouted, bits and pieces of his words broken by the storm, “and I know you don’t want this! Fight it Hana! I know you can!”

Kkeun responded by baring its teeth and snarling at him, but Hana responded with a feeling of deep dread and a distant heartache. Of course he would come for her. Of course he did.

“Hana, I made you a song.” Lúcio said, skating a little closer, “I was going to show you after this mission, but I want you to hear it now. Tell me what you think.”

The song he played for her was a story in itself. So strong and vibrant was the bass and the energetic beat of the drums with a subtle, somber undertone of string instruments that came together so beautifully that it helped her imagine perfectly the person he made it for. It was a song from someone who knew her so well that he could recreate her being using nothing but sound. She saw him clearly then, his vibrant brown eyes watching her with a desperate hope, every part of him rooting or her, telling her that she could do it. She could win.

Kkeun was rooted in place, memorized once again by Lúcio’s music. Hana vaguely wondered what sort of thoughts the parasite was having, but knew that nothing that went on in its mind was worth knowing. Right now she had her chance, and she was going to make it.

“Lu...” Her lips were hers again and she fought for that privilege with everything she had, encouraged and empowered by the music that made up herself. “Lúcio.” 

She looked down at the bawling, soaking wet baby in her arms. She could feel it. The wind was cold and cutting sharp paths across her bare arms and face, and her hair was plastered to her head, but as uncomfortable as it was, she could feel it all. She could even feel her own heartbeat, and up until that moment she hadn’t realized how much she missed that one proof that she was still alive. Tears welled up in her eyes and she could feel their hot trails down her face before they were swept away by the storm. Hana wasn’t sure why, but her mother’s face suddenly came to her as she took a step forward and held out the baby. Her mother wanted her to be brave and strong, and that’s the most Hana could do. Now that she understood what she had lost, she realized the true horror of what was slowly being taken from her again. She had no time.

“Take... the... baby...” Lúcio came closer and gently pulled the child from her arms. Hana wanted to touch him then, to give him a hug, but her control was failing and she’d only end up hurting him. It was then when the Mes snapped back into control, wrenching Hana’s thoughts away from her body and launching itself at Lúcio with a savage snarl. Kkeun snarled an inhumane howl and slammed their shoulder into Lúcio’s side. Kkeun could not forgive the man for stealing Nan food away from it, and it was determined to kill them both. However, Lúcio was quick and had already skated out of reach. The deck beneath them suddenly lurched wildly as an enormous wave hit the side, causing her to slide across the deck and hit the railing hard enough to leave a bruise on her side.

Hana’s world shrank again as her awareness trickled away. She could only watch, once again a passive observer, as Kkeun closed the distance between them and Lúcio. The deck was slipper and rocked terribly, but Kkeun paid no attention to the physical limitations of the storm. The parasite braced itself and hit Lúcio with all of its might, flinging the musician and the baby into the roiling black abyss.

xXx

Jack didn’t stop to think. The knife he had in his boot was pulled out and he held it against his infected eye. There was no choice here he either lived or died with his fee will, and he was determined to live.

His hand tightened on the handle of his knife and, with no further hesitation, plunged it straight in. The most disconcerting part of gouging out his own eye wasn’t the horrible, soul-deep pain and the feeling of blood splattering down his face and onto the floor, it was the awareness that he wasn’t the only one in agony. His knife had split his eyelid in two and gone right through his iris, messily cleaving his own eyeball in half along with the parasite inhabiting it. It shrieked, which he could feel as it made tiny vibrations against his skull. Unfortunately, he wasn’t done yet. His eye was still in there and so was the parasite, and both had to be removed.

Gritting his teeth against nausea and dizziness, Jack reached up into his ruined socket and caught the tail end of something long and slithery. He pulled, and out stretched the little grey worm, longer, impossibly long, and longer, until it stretched as far as it could go. It clung stubbornly to his eye as if it was its last salvation and he could still feel it furious chittering sounds in his brain. In the end, however, with one last yank, it exited with a sharp snap, pulling Jack’s eye along with it. Jack snarled and threw it to the ground, eye and all, and stomped on it until there was nothing left but a translucent smear. He panted and reached for his biotic field and slammed it into the ground as well, and he fell to one knee a moment later. 

He wasn’t done though. His flashlight showed him more shadows flitting to and fro, and he couldn’t afford to sit here before another one decided to have a go. He took a deep, ragged breath and considered dragging himself to his feet despite his exhaustion. The fighting wasn’t done, and he wasn’t done either. 

Suddenly, something smashed into the ground next to him, spreading what smelled like bleach across his boots. The little monsters shrieked as they were melted away to nothing. A soft blue light flared from the tips of a staff, revealing the broken face of Juniper.

“You survived.” Juniper’s heavy German accent was just as startling the second time and he pulled a roll of bandages from the bag he wore over his shoulder. “Many do not.” He kneeled down and unravelled them over Jack’s ruined eye. “This is a small price to pay for your unlikely freedom.”

Jack would reply, but he was suddenly more tired than he’d ever been in his life. Perhaps Juniper noticed, because he reached into his bag and pulled something out.

“Your fight is not over, Soldier. We are not safe.” The omnic murmured just loud enough for Jack to hear. He held out Jack’s mask and pulled a familiar rifle from his shoulder. “Let me say one thing to you, Jack Morrison. Your protege is not yet dead and she can be saved if you are willing to do what it takes to save her. I have what you need but first you must promise me something.” Juniper looked at him gravely. 

“I just... survived a hell room and cut my own eye out.” Jack panted, shakily getting to his feet and putting his mask on. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Juniper nodded.

“When you leave this ship, you must find those two women who escaped with Bob. He intends to use them as bait to capture Sovereign, and whatever the outcome, they will die. You must find them and keep them safe, surely not a tall order for heroes such as yourself. It is not right for the survival to come with such a steep price.”

“Isn’t this putting a price on Hana’s survival too?”

“Yes.”

He did not elaborate. 

Jack had no choice. If he was at his full health then he might have wrestled the omnic for whatever he had, but right now he wasn’t feeling much up to it.

“Then yes.”

“You will only have one shot at this. Make any mistake and she will be lost, and you will have to kill her.”

“It’s more of a shot than I had a moment ago. I want to know how you know so much about thees things, and why you didn’t want Overwatch involved.”

“Difficult questions with long answers.” Juniper said briskly, pulling a syringe full of purple liquid out of his bag. “Unfortunately, we do not have the time for them, as the Great Mother is almost here. I will say, however, that I know about them because I watched them be created, and Overwatch should not be involved because the world needs you, and The Storyteller is determined to destroy you if you interfere.”

“Who is this storyteller?” Jack was determined to wring every answer possible from the omnic before things all went to hell. At least he took some comfort in Juniper’s assumption that he was going to survive this hellhole.

“The Storyteller is the one who tells the Story Untold. He is not your only enemy in this plot of ours, beware the Written Code and Project Genepool. I imagine you will meet them soon enough now that you are part of this.”

“And where do you stand?”

Juniper bowed his head. “I am no friend or ally of yours, Soldier: 76. Perhaps when we meet again I will tell you my full story, but for now accept that I am only helping you to save the innocent. But enough, take this.” He pushed the syringe into Jack’s hand and took a step back. “You will need to inject her with this. This will make the creature sluggish and it will float freely in her body for a short amount of time. You must cut it out as quickly as you can, and you cannot leave even a sliver inside the body, or else it will simply grow again and repossess her at some later time, and if it wakes up as it is being pulled out, it may attach itself to her bone, which would make it virtually impossible to remove unless you are willing to take the bone out along with it.”

That left a lot of room for failure, but once again he had no choice. He didn’t trust Juniper at all, but he had to do so anyway if he wanted even the slightest chance to save Hana.

“How long have you had this?” Surely someone would have noticed that he carried around a needle, he doubted that the fussy four-armed child keeper would tolerate something so sharp near any of the children.

“My body holds many secret compartments, and this is a sample I was given to try on an infected human. I had three at the start of this journey, and the other two were failures. Let us hope that, as they say, “third time’s the charm.””

“By that I think he means that Hana serves his purpose, and he will only save her because of that.”

A heavy Russian accent sounded behind Juniper and Zarya materialized out of the shadows and loomed over Juniper with an air of distrust and dislike. While Zarya was getting over her issue with omnics, mainly Zenyatta and Bastion, she always made it clear that she would never really like them as a whole. 

Her threatening presence was completely ignored by Juniper, who noticed a UV lamp dangling from her belt and quickly snatched it up. 

“This is a UV lamp! Excellent, I had forgotten to bring one and was worried that this was going to be more difficult than it needed to be.”

He glanced at the humans as they stared at him in confusion. “The Kos shine like beacons under the UV lights,” he explained, “You will be able to see it through her flesh and it will be easier for you to carve it out.

We have everything we need. Now we have to find her.”

xXx

The little green light plunged into her domain.

She could not ignore it.

Tendrils reached forward from her body to the struggling glow. It will fade, and it will fade inside her.

Goodbye little light. 

This world is too dark for you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S BEEN A VERY LONG TIME since I last updated this and I am so very sorry. Worry not dear readers, I do intend to finish writing this, but this month has been full of a lot of anxiety things. I am determined to get the next chapter up next week, and I'm pretty sure the next chapter will be the last of Jack and Co.'s adventure. After that we'll be seeing what Winston and Co. are up to in the Canadian North. 
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> The Great Mother cannot be fought, she can only be escaped from. Soon she will tear the ship apart with her own claws and pull it beneath the waves, and Overwatch will need to escape, all of them, if they are to discover more about this plot Juniper had shown a glimpse of to them. Fear not, for D.Va is not out of the running yet, and she will fight to her last breath to save everyone she holds dear.


	13. A Good Day to

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An end of one harrowing adventure, but, unfortunately, the beginning of another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has more "action" than "horror", so I can't think of any warnings in particular to give. Well, besides casual de-limbing and more parasitic fun. 
> 
> My playlist for this chapter, just because:
> 
> Jack - [Slipping away](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiGSgIRnEdk)  
> Kos - [Outlast 2 Cornfield Chase](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Z8wIhRylU)  
> Hana - [Unstoppable](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxjvTXo9WWM)  
> Juniper - [In Circles (From the Transistor soundtrack)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMWL8cOeAU)  
> Great mother - [Insidious](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOZROoCG6_4) and [Enter Darkness from Soma](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43MoJbuVxUE&index=9&list=PLC8a220tZje6pHw9KfKm7fyoBd-zSqKAA)

Satya groggily pulled herself to her feet just as Lúcio disappeared out the door. Torbjörn had been kneeling over her with concern in his eyes, and took a respectable step back when she awoke. 

“Where are they?” She asked, recovering almost instantly. Her photon projector had been knocked across the room. She briskly walked over and picked it up.

“He chased her out there.” The Swedish man growled, indicating with a claw at the outside door, which had been left open. “She grabbed one of the young ones on her way out, otherwise I would have shot her myself.”

Satya didn’t doubt that. If a child had been taken, then Satya did not fault Lúcio for chasing her down, nor for Torbjorn for staying here. Someone needed to guard the remaining children, after all. The children were all crying into Mishomis’ many arms, and the omnic was staring at her pleadingly, though there was nothing he could say to make things better. 

Unbidden by her, she remembered the look in Hana’s eyes. It was terrible how such a human-like face could lack any humanity at all. There had been a monster behind those filmy white eyes.

Now Satya had to figure out what she was going to do. She could go after Lúcio and save him from whatever mess he had gotten himself into, or she could trust that he had it covered and stay here to guard the remaining survivors with Torbjörn. Staying made sense because the survivors’ defenders had been whittled down to two. Leaving made sense because it was entirely possible that Lúcio was in danger and Satya had no misgivings about leaving the survivors in Torbjörn's care. The eternally cranky man was small and loud, but she did not doubt that he would protect these people down to his last breath. There was also the child Satya had to consider. If Lúcio failed to get the child, then someone else had to. It had to be her, in that case. 

To aid in her decision-making, she bought up her map on her visor and noted that the two dots, Lúcio’s and Hana’s, were not that far off. They were paused, facing each other, on the deck, which was a danger in itself considering the storm. Was Lúcio trying to talk to the creature that killed Hana? Did he believe there was still hope? Of course he was. Optimistic fool.

Her irritation turned quickly to concern when Lúcio’s dot suddenly flew over the side of the ship and plunged into the water below. Her heart jolted as she watched the dot fall, horribly aware that Hana must have pushed him. Anger rolled over her as she saw Hana’s dot turn away and go back inside. It was impossible to determine who had the child, but it did not mean good things whoever had her. 

“Lúcio is overboard.” She said in her usual cold and unruffled way. There was no need to wait for Torbjorn’s reply, as she walked over to the door and exited through it, pulling it shut behind her as she made her careful way across the windblown deck. The storm did not deter her, and it was only when she reached the railing and looked out into the blackened sea, lit occasionally by bursts of lightning, that she paused.

Satya was not a strong swimmer. It was only because of her work with Vishkar that she had learned how to swim at all, and if she had decided to throw herself into the fathomless deep waters to save Lúcio, then she would only succeed in drowning them both. 

Her hands gripped the railing and she stared helplessly down at the abyss. Lúcio was down there somewhere.

There. She saw a tiny glow of green pierce the darkness and she called out to him, but to no avail as the wind stole her words.

“Someone help! We’re in the water!” Lúcio spluttered over the channel, and Satya felt her heart clench. She had to do something. Even if she could not swim very well, there had to be something she could still do.

xXx

Hana was silent now.

Kkeun noticed that her voice faded the moment she had flung the noisy human off the ship. Before her silence, there was a burst of despair so great that even Kkeun could understand what it meant.

They were running through the dark hallways, desperate to return to the Nan. Although she had failed to obtain food, the Nan still needed her to guard it. Ordinarily there would be others to help Kkeun perform this task, but there was only here, and it left her with a feeling of emptiness she couldn’t describe. There were any dangerous humans on the ship and she would have to kill them all to keep the Nan safe. Of course, she wouldn’t have to protect it for long, the Great Mother was almost upon them. Once she was there, the humans and omnics aboard would bow to her might.

She descended down the staircase, which was now tilted so precariously that she found it easier to just slide down the walls. She noted that the water at the bottom was getting higher, the deafening sloshing was a comfort to her. Water was where she naturally belonged. 

Something tugged at her, a heavy pull that came from Hana herself. It was tied to her despair, but a different emotion altogether. Kkeun couldn’t place it.

“I am doing what I am meant to do.” She said out loud, her voice echoing along with her footsteps as she opened the door leading to the hallway the Nan was down. “Unlike you, I have a purpose.”

Hana was still quiet. Kkeun didn’t know why this bothered her so much, for Hana’s silence was something she had wanted for the past little while. 

“You think I am a monster.”

That finally got a reaction. 

_You are a monster._ Hana hissed, her rage and hatred flaring and threatening to smother the both of them. _You stole my body! You hurt my friends! If that is what you were “meant to do’, then you were always meant to be a monster!_

Kkeun didn’t quite understand what she meant. She didn’t understand a lot of what went through Hana’s human mind.

“What is a monster?”

_A monster is something that hurts or kills another living being just because they can. A monster is evil, like you and the rest of your kind. Stealing someone else’s free will is monstrous, and you don’t seem to get that._

“But you have killed and hurt others because you could. It is not your nature to kill, so perhaps it is you that is the monster?”

_That’s different! And complete bullshit! Nothing I’ve ever done has come close to what you’re doing now! I’m not going to waste any time trying to make you understand._

“You-”

xXx

While Jack didn’t believe in the whole “you sometimes have to hurt the ones you love” bullshit, he was also not a very gentle man, nor was he in the best of moods after living through hell and gouging out his own eye to dislodge a mind-control parasite. So when Hana appeared, talking to herself, he brought up his rifle and swung it like a baseball bat, hitting her square in the middle. Even a super strong Hana felt a blow like that, and she doubled over just as Zarya jumped on her from behind and pinned her to the floor. Considering how unnecessarily difficult everything else had been, Jack hadn’t been expecting that to go as smoothly as it did.

“We should bring her to a med bay.” Jack said, glancing around and noticing how generally unsanitary their surroundings were: The floor was covered in bleach, kos guts, and blood. He had done his best to clean his blade, but he still wasn’t crazy about using the same knife he just used on himself on her. This wasn’t ideal in any kind of way.

Almost as if the universe was making fun of his attempts at making logical decisions, a mournful howl echoed through the hallway, a sound not unlike the sound a hundred sick whales would make. The ground, the walls, the entire ship, all vibrated from the force of the faraway wail, which had to have come from something that was impossibly big.

“The Great Mother is here.” Hana said unexpectedly. Jack didn’t like that her voice wasn’t any different from the normal Hana voice. This monster Hana did not speak in the halting or slurred way he’d come to expect from these things. She simply sounded like Hana. 

Somehow that made it worse.

“We have no time.” Juniper snapped, jumping to his feet and holding out his staff. “You need to get it out of her _now!_ Hurry!”

Jack shared a look with Zarya and they both grimaced, but now that doing this safety and hygienically was off the table, they had no choice but to proceed. It was just really too bad that this wasn’t going to be any fun for anyone.

Hana hissed at him again and Jack sighed. Alright, it was time to do this. With very little ceremony, he pulled out the needle and injected the purple liquid into the back of her neck, just as Juniper had instructed him to. Hana let out a scream of pain and fury as every muscle in her body tensed for one very long moment before relaxing completely. Her eyes fluttered closed and her breathing stilled.

It was almost tempting to say “So far so good,” but Jack grew out of that a long time ago. Instead, he flicked on the UV light and moved her hair out of the way so he could examine her neck and shoulders.

“There,” said Zarya, who pointed with her chin to the moving line slithering slowly away from Hana’s neck. It was deeply unpleasant to watch the thin body of the parasitic worm move under the skin, as the skin raised slightly as it made its way through it.

“Steady. Wait until it stops.” Cautioned Juniper.

 

Easier said than done. Jack wanted to cut the little monster out right then, However, he wasn’t going to fuck this up, and he didn’t want to cut Hana more than necessary. 

The ship shuddered suddenly, enough that everyone within it paused what they were doing.

“What the hell is going on up there.” Jack wondered out loud and the three of them fought to get their bearings. Jack noted that the sound of rushing water was closer now and tiny streams were now trickling from beneath the doors. 

“The Great Mother.” Juniper said solemnly. 

No more conversation was needed. Jack knelt down next to the girl and held out his knife. The thing had stopped moving on Hana’s upper right arm. If this were a fair and ideal world, he would have pulled it out without a problem. 

The cut was made carefully just parallel to the creature, Jack didn’t want to risk cutting it in half. Hana grunted in response to the pain, her fingers clenching into a fist while sweat beaded her forehead. Ideally, if you wanted to yank something out of someone’s body, you wouldn’t use your bare fingers for such a task. Jack felt as though an infection was unavoidable. He considered asking Juniper to do this, but there was no guarantee that the omnic’s hands were any cleaner than his.

When Jack reached into Hana’s arm, he reflected on how often he’s had to dig something out of someone in his lifetime. Usually it was a bullet or three, sometimes a knife, and sometimes even something that typically wouldn’t be used as a weapon, like a chopstick. At least those things were fairly normal in his line of work, also bullets don’t cause a person to wake screaming from a near catatonic state when your fingers touch them.

“Hold her still!” Jack snarled and dug his fingers further into the cut, blood was running from the wound and pooling on the floor, and his hands were stained with it. He paid this no mind, as Hana was working herself into an angry, thrashing frenzy, her teeth gnashing and her fingers clawing desperately at the floor. Much to everyone’s surprise, Hana managed to lift Zarya off the ground for half a second before collapsing again. 

Jack dug his fingers in again, and he had to ignore the feeling of muscles bunching as he finally got two fingers around the little parasite monster.

“I’ve got it.” He grunted, and then pulled.

One inch.

Two inches.

Five.

The parasitic string let out a pitiful shriek after it reached its seventh inch and the part that was still embedded in Hana’s flesh burrowed deeper.

“Quickly,” Juniper said with an eerie calm. “It is trying to find a bone to latch onto.”

Jack lost all patience and yanked it hard. In a way it was like pulling a strong to open a box; the creature’s narrow sides cur through Hana’s flesh as easily as paper. A sting in his fingers told him that his own fingers were being cut into by the kos’s sharp sides, but he ignored it. He was so close. Just one little bit more and Hana would be okay.

Ah, well, if only things were allowed to be that simple.

xXx

The world swam both inside and outside her head. Kkeun’s thoughts were faint now, as if it was being slowly pulled away. She was still not in control of her body despite the increasing faintness of Kkeun’s presence, but she could feel things. She felt Zarya’s weight on top of her. She felt Jack’s hand on her arm. She felt the omnic’s gaze as he watched her in a coldly calculating way. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Kkeun’s true body was pulled slowly from her right arm.

Hana was almost free. She could feel it touching the corners of her mind, and the closeness to her freedom almost made her weep. This nightmare was almost over.

Her flesh was being torn into, her blood pooling along her body. Despite the dull pain, she found her mind wandering away towards a beacon so bright she couldn’t ignore it. It was open only to the Kos, but all Hana had to do was follow the path Kkeun would have taken.

She touched the light, only to recoil when the light did. Like the dancing lantern of an angular fish, this light, as warming and inviting as it was, had been a trap. She felt a powerful amalgamated mind turn to her and suddenly she was the focus of something so monstrous that it made Kkeun look no more terrible than the common cold. Curiosity had always been a weakness of hers, however, and she couldn’t resist peering into the light despite the danger, and when she did, she found a name. With the name came a feeling of fear so great and consuming that she would have begged Jack to kill her right then rather than live with the knowledge of what this name meant. A deep, unfathomable rage washed over her, a sinister anger that vowed to make her suffer for daring to tread upon a domain that was closed to her and for stealing something as precious as a name. Hana felt a pull, and she realized that she was being reeled in, towards Her. She would be pulled apart by Her and Hana’s mind would shatter. There would be no saving her from that. 

She would not let Hana escape with Her name, nor would she let her escape after seeing for herself what She was made out of.

Hana screamed for Jack. She screamed for Satya, her mother, Lúcio, Ana. There was no freedom for her. No hope. No future. 

That was until a wave of awful, bone-deep pain swept over her and carried her right out of Her grasp. Rage chased her, snapping at her heels before stopping just short of the safety of Hana’s own mind. She snapped cleanly back in place just in time to watch Jack bring his knife down on her arm again. He wasn’t trying to cut it out of her anymore, she realized, he was trying to cut it _off_.

“Jack...” She managed to force out of her numb lips, but whatever she was going to say next as interrupted by her own shriek of pain, and she felt the knife cut int her flesh and saw its way down to her bone. Up until this moment Hana had thought she understood what pain was. She could handle bullet wounds and burns that came with her duty to Overwatch, and she could handle damaged organs, broken bones, and cuts just fine. She was a soldier, after all, but there was something different about having your arm hacked off by a man with a combat knife.

She wanted to beg him to stop, it hurt so much, but she bit back the words because she trusted him. Jack and Zarya wouldn’t hurt her unless they felt they had to, and she understood, through the haze of agony, why they had to. She couldn’t stop the tears from welling in her eyes as she watched Jack’s impassive mask everytime it bobbed into view. 

“Hang in there Hana.” jack voice sounded like it was coming from a great distance away.

“Zarya, break the bone.”

Feeling came back to her the moment her arm was wrenched away with a sickening crack, and she couldn’t hold back another scream. There was blood everywhere, it was all she could see Her arm! Oh god, her arm was gone!

“My arm!” She moaned, struggling against Zarya as if that could do anything.

“It’s escaping!” The omnic cried, “Get it before-”

Zarya finally released her the moment Jack threw down his biotic field. 

Hana dragged herself to her knees and took a deep breath, and then looked down at her right shoulder. What she saw nearly made her pass out again. The biotic field was powerful enough that her wound wasn’t bleeding as much as it should have, but her arm was gone. In fact, she could see it lying a short distance away. Seeing her dismembered arm made her feel strangely detached herself, as if there the arm belonged to someone else and had nothing to do with her. She’d seen disembodied bodyparts before, of course, they were completely unavoidable on the battlefield, and they occasionally found their way into her dreams. It was a different experience for it to be her own, and she automatically tried to clench her fingers and felt a wave of nausea it her when her arm didn’t respond.

It was then, while she was staring at her arm, that she noticed the little black string coil away from her detached limb. Hatred bloomed from her her heart and it was so potent that it sliced through her numb haze. Kkeun was not escaping. Gritting her teeth against the pain, Hana dragged herself to her feet, ignoring Jack’s warning, and wrapping her hand around the bloody knife Jack had abandoned next to her.

“You’re not going anywhere.” She snarled before launching herself at the parasite. Her own hatred was a blessing, because she could _feel_ it as it coursed through her heart and mind, and how it empowered her enough that when she brought the knife down on Kkeun, she felt a thrill when she cut it in half. Kkeun shrieked, and attempted to flee, both pieces wiggling in opposite directions. She screamed at the tiny thing in Korean as she brought down the knife again, and again, and again. It was sliced into five pieces now, and they wiggled feebly. Quickly realizing that cutting would do no good, she threw away the knife and raised her fist and brought it down on the kos. Had she been an ordinary human, this would have done very little damage, but Kkeun’s strength still lingered in her, and the pieces of Kkeun died under her relentless assault with an unpleasant squish. One pieces was getting away. It was moving faster than the others and was escaping down the hallway, and Hana hauled herself drunkenly to her feet, determined to follow it. She was going to kill it, she had to kill Kkeun. It deserved whatever she gave it. The rest of the world, the ship, the storm, the Great Mother- all of it paled in comparison to her obsessive need to destroy Kkeun. It would not get away from her, she would hunt it down even if it killed her.

She was tugged away from the retreating parasite and she fought against the hand that held her remaining arm, tears stung at her eyes as she watched Kkeun disappear under a door. She turned to Jack and cursed him Korean, her hysteria pushing her to punch him a couple times before collapsing against his chest. Hana sobbed into Jack’s bloody jacket and she felt him wrap his arms around her. 

“You’re free now, Hana.” He whispered into her hair. She noticed that he had removed his mask for this. Kkeun continued to fill her every thought for a moment longer, before she let it go and wrapped her remaining arm around Jack’s shoulder. The tears, unbidden by her, wouldn’t stop no matter how hard she tried to stifle her sobs. She was in so much pain and the sheer terror she had felt over the past few hours bubbled to the surface and hit her all at once. So she cried, and her freedom to do so wasn’t lost on her. 

“I knew you’d make it. I knew it’d take more than one of those things to take you down.” She told him, her voice hoarse from screaming. “I’m so sorry Jack, I tried to stop it, I tried so hard but-”

“Shh. It’s alright.”

“Thank you.” She said, but these words felt inadequate in expressing the soul-deep gratitude she felt. Jack had saved more than just her life, and she didn’t think that she had enough words in any of the languages she knew to tell him exactly how she felt. They had both survived. 

She took a deep breath to compose herself and took a step back. Jack’s face startled her, and she reached up and touched the bandage over his eye.

“I guess we both lost something.” She said quietly, and that comforted her in no small way.

“Yeah, but with any luck we won’t have to lose any more. Now hold still and let me bandage you.”

xXx

Lúcio liked to believe in the best of the world. That’s just how he was, and it was an aspect of himself he was proud of.

“You have to believe in the best if you want to fight for the best.” His mother had told him often growing up. Lúcio had almost lost hope a few times in his life, like the time when he looked at the bodies who had died for the cause he instigated and fought for, or the time he witnessed an omnic and human kill one-another when he could have stopped it. Neither times had felt as personal as the moment Hana looked at him with eyes that looked like they were full of spiderwebs. Her face had been barely lit by his flashlight, but it looked like her face, even if those pale eyes had glared at him with more hatred and rage than he could comprehend coming from his best friend. Hana had been there, for the briefest moment as he played her the song he had spent months making for her, but she had been wiped away so easily that it broke his heart. Yet, despite the monster that wore Hana’s face flinging him into the sea with a baby in his arms, Lúcio still felt some stirrings of hope. He believed that she still could be saved. 

Skates, as it turned out, were terrible to swim in, and Lúcio struggled to keep Rosa’s head above the water. The boat groaned and creaked next to him, and underneath all of it, Lúcio could hear a low wail of something big. Lúcio had watched all the recordings, and he had seen the last moments of a lot of people, and he knew that this sound meant danger. This sound was responsible for the suffering of thousands of innocent people, and it was here to finish the job. This thought would have made a normal person quiver in fear, but Lúcio only felt a burst of righteous anger when he thought about how that sound was responsible for what had happened here, and it was because of it that Hana was the way she was now. 

Rosa spluttered and cried, and Lúcio put all of his energy into keeping her head above the water, even when he was barely able to keep himself afloat. The waves lifted them high into the air, before dropping them down and submerging them. Worse, Lúcio felt himself hit the side of the ship a few times, and stars were starting to dance in his vision. 

“Someone help! We’re in the water!” He cried into his comm, hoping beyond hope that someone could hear. Anyone. 

“Lúcio!”

He looked up and saw a sliver of light being lowered from the side of the ship. It took him a moment to realize that it was a hard-light rope of some kind, and that Satya was dangling on the end of it, though he could only see the light of her blue visor. She reached for him with her organic hand and he reached back the best he could. The waves hoisted him just high enough to almost reach her... before dropping him down far below. Up again... and this time his fingers caught hers, and she pulled him out of the water. 

“Give me the child!” Satya shouted over the storm and Lúcio was quick to hand her over. It is very difficult to climb ropes with skates and he couldn’t climb one-handed, so it made sense. It was a lucky moment for Rosa, but very unlucky for Lúcio, for the time it took for him to pause and pass the child to Satya was enough for something long and thin to wrap itself around his ankle and yank him back into the water.

Down he went, his fingers clawing desperately at the water. Underneath he could no longer tell which way was up, as all directions were pitch black. All directions except one.

There were four large white orbs before him, all set apart in a perfect square. They glowed with a sinister light and Lúcio got the sense that whatever this was was _huge_.

A circle opened right in the center between the white orbs. Wider, and wider it went until Lúcio got a sense of glowing white triangles, and he realized with a bolt of horror, that those were teeth. He was looking at a circular mouth filled with rows and rows of teeth, a mouth wide enough to swallow a bus if it so desired, and still the number of teeth grew, until it seemed his entire world was filled with them. 

Lúcio was trapped in the gaze of the Great Mother. 

He was being pulled to his death by a tendril, and he could feel a numbness creep into his air-deprived brain. It was as though acceptance was being forced into his mind, trying to coax him to stop fighting. 

_Sleep, whispers the leviathan. Sleep and feel no pain._

For a moment he did stop fighting. Fear and the knowledge that he was going to be sawed to pieces, a tiny snack, for this monster, and there was nothing he could do about it. His friends were going to die, and there was nothing he could do about that either. He even wondered if anything he had ever done had ever been worth it if, in the end, he was going to be devoured while lost in the middle of the ocean. These thoughts felt like poison, and he struggled against them. He thought of his music, of his friends. All of it meant something, even if his fading mind couldn’t quite grasp it anymore. 

The four glowing orbs glowed brighter, as if it were draining him of his hope and using it to empower herself. 

The last bit of air left his lungs.

He drifted.

And then he was unexpectedly let go.

The monster below howled with a sudden, unfathomable rage, and Lúcio was abruptly forgotten. Its haunting wail cut through the ocean and Lúcio, who had not been far from that terrible mouth, felt it down to his bones, and it filled him with both a sense of ceaseless terror, and a determination so strong that it wiped away his earlier apathy.

He wasn’t dead yet. 

The Great Mother left him and disappeared into the darkness, but she was hardly done with any of them. Something had happened, and she would not forgive any of them for it. 

Lúcio was down to mere seconds before he blacked out, so he wasted no time undoing his leg armour and skates and letting them drop into the darkness below. It was unfortunate to leave them, but without the extra weight it was easier for him to kick his way back to the surface.

His head was so light and is lungs were screaming for air. Just a little further... just a little...

For the second time that night, something grabbed him, and he reacted by feebly trying to fight it. Whatever it was was strong, but instead of dragging him down, it pulled him up and out of the water, causing him to gasp and gulp helplessly for air. 

“Why hello there.” Said Shih, who was dangling from a rope bridge along the side of the S.S Red Flag while clutching his arm, “sorry I’m late, but it looks like I arrived just in time, eh?”

xXx

“Lúcio.” Said Satya when she boarded the ship and found the musician wrapped in five heavy blankets.

“Hey.” He said with a bright grin, “I’m glad you got her to safety, thank you.”

Satya’s face twitched, as if she wanted to say more, express more, maybe even touch him, but she did none of these things. Instead she only nodded and began working on her teleporter. 

The survivors would all be safe soon.

xXx

Mishomis saw that teleporter appear in front of them and he was told by Torbjörn that their ship had finally arrived. If he had been capable of crying, he would have burst out sobbing right then, but he kept his composure for the children. They were still under his care and he would keep on caring for them until he got them all to safety.

“Do you hear that children? We’re going home!”

The ones who understood what this meant started cheering. John grew quiet and Lavina started crying quietly in her hands. Mishomis put an understanding hand on her shoulder and she leaned against him. 

And yet.

A heavy weight of dread was on the corner of his mind. Mishomis understood that what he had done ensured that he could never go home again. What a fool he was, but what else could he do?

Juniper couldn’t be trusted.

xXx

For a moment, Zarya dared to believe that things were okay. Hana was saved, their ship was here, and the survivors were on their way to safety. However, that would have been too easy, and Zarya had long since learned that nothing was ever easy with Overwatch.

It was the omnic that brought the first drop of reality.

“The bomb.” He said, putting a hand on the Commander’s shoulder. “We need to deal with the bomb, and soon. If we wait any longer, then we will lose our window of opportunity, and your escape will meaning nothing if you get blown up before you get there.”

Zarya disliked this omnic and distrusted how he seemed to conveniently have all the answers. Not even the fact that it was almost entirely due to him that Hana had been saved softened her towards him. This omnic meant trouble, and Zarya was determined to keep trouble away from her friends. 

Almost as if he heard her thoughts, Juniper turned to look at her and she had a sudden feeling of being seen straight down to her soul. The little omnic monk Zenyatta often did the same, but not even Zarya could find any malice in Zenyatta’s examination of her. The air around this omnic radiated a sense of sinister mystery, and Zarya’s every instinct told her that this omnic was no friend of theirs, nor did he truly mean any of them well.

Which was why she was seriously displeased by the following conversation. 

“Soldier: 76, you and I must go together to disable it.”

She was further displeased to see the Commander nod in agreement 

“Zarya, take Hana topside and help protect the others.” He said, looking up at her as if anticipating her incoming objection. 

“Hold on.” Zarya said stubbornly, though she did bend down and scoop up the barely-conscious Hana into her arms. “How do you know where to find this bomb? You did not know before.”

The answer that came was said so matter-of-factly that Zarya bristled, sure that she was being patronized.

“My sensors are now in full working order with the removal of the blocking signal.” He said, but again Zarya felt that the answer was too easy.

“Why the Commander? I am stronger and uninjured. I should go and the Commander should take Hana up.”

“Only those who have been infected the kos are blind to. If they find you, they will take you and your body will be used to destroy us all. We cannot stand here and argue, our time has run out.”

His sentence was punctuated with a violent rocking of the ship and a horrible, metallic screeching of metal against metal down the hallway, which was quickly followed by the distant sound of a very large heartbeat. She saw the Commander shudder.

“Go Zarya, I will find a way back, I promise.” He looked at Hana when he said this, but Hana was too out of it to acknowledge him. 

He paused, noting her reluctance, before saying in a dry voice, “That’s an order.”

Zarya had no more arguments after that.

There wasn’t much more to say, so Zarya moved Hana to her back and flicked on her flashlight. She spared one final look behind her and she saw that neither the Commander nor Juniper looked back as the darkness swallowed them.

xXx

Jack and Juniper didn’t go very far before another violent tearing of metal screeched through the ship, a sound so loud Jack would have lost his hearing if it hadn’t been for his headwear.

“Soldier: 76.” Satya said in her usual cool way through their comm, “We have moved all the children and passengers of the ship, but there is something in the water and it is tearing the ship apart. Do you need me to come and get you? I can bring you all back with my teleporter.”

“Hana and Zarya are on their way to you.” Jack cut in. “Wait for them.”

“Hana...?”

“She’s alright, but badly wounded.”

“Understood.”

One of the best things about Satya was that conversations never lasted longer than they needed to, and Jack greatly appreciated that. A third violent tearing hit the ship and Jack contacted Shih.

“When D.Va and Zarya board your ship, I want you to leave immediately.” He said shortly in Mandarin. “Don’t wait up for me.”

“Maybe I don’t want to leave you behind.”

“You’ve done it before and you can do it again, Cho.”

“I see. Fine.”

He had pissed her off, but he would deal with that later, if there was a later. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if there wasn’t a later, he felt as though every ounce of exhaustion he’d felt in his life had draped itself on his bones, making him heavy and tired. That was quitter talk though, and Jack was well known for his tendency to keep going no matter the horror. 

“Focus.” Juniper said sharply, as if he understood the thoughts in his head. “The bomb is in one of the upper rooms. I have no idea why he put them there, that area was likely swarmed by the time he thought to use the explosive. It would have been extremely difficult, but then again, Bob really likes doing things in the most pointlessly complicated way possible.”

“So, it might be a bit late for this, but why couldn’t you have done this yourself?” Jack asked, looking over to examine Juniper’s scarred face. Once again, he wondered how he got those scars. From the way they looked, he wondered if they had been self-inflicted. From what Jack knew of omnics, they were usually pretty good at keeping themselves in good shape, yet Juniper looked as if he hadn’t seen a mechanic in decades, and was being held together through spit and prayers, and then there was the whole Shambali monk outfit that looked just as ratty as he was. The only thing that looked right about him was his staff, which was polished to a shine. 

“Trust me, Soldier: 76, you will see once we get there.

Any further conversation they might have had while working their way up the dark hallway lit only by the light of Juniper’s staff was cut off by a third rattle through the ship, though this one was so violent that it threw both omnic and human to the ground. The ship was now tilting a new direction, and Jack wondered if somehow it had been torn in half. Wind began to blow freely down the hallway, plucking at his clothes. This grim realization was followed by a chillingly familiar clicking sound.

“She has released kos on the ship.” Juniper muttered. “They will be coming for us shortly, so prepare yourself; The larva are not the only horror she carries around with her.”

Whatever that meant went way beyond his imagination. 

A groan sounded behind him and he whipped around and raised his rifle. The miserable hallway they were in was damp with the storm and old blood was starting to run as water washed over it. The salty smell of the sea drowned out everything else, but underneath it Jack detected a whiff of decay that hadn’t been there before.

“We need to run.” Juniper said, instantly taking off and Jack was quick to follow. “The room is up ahead!”

They skidded around the corner and Juniper stopped suddenly beneath a closed door, which was now on the ceiling.

“I will boost you.” He said, indicating to the door.

The door was pushed open and they clambered through. Jack closed it behind them and turned his gaze on the bomb, which was sitting on the wall in the what used to be the middle of the room. It was surprisingly big, and Jack didn’t see how anyone could have snuck this past security. Vishkar was somewhat famous for its almost paranoid security measures. But even Jack could tell that this wasn’t a fusion bomb. It was big, and had the look of high tech, but it definitely wasn’t what Bob said it was. 

“Bob does not know the first thing about explosives.” Juniper explained, “He kept insisting that this was a fusion bomb. But that does not mean that this bomb is any less dangerous to your friends. An explosion is an explosion however it is caused. Hmm.” He said thoughtfully after he pulled open the hatch and peered inside.

“Those two women knew what they were doing. I am almost impressed. Ah, here we go.” A number appeared on the screen. A countdown, to be more specific.

“Seems like we have two minutes before we’re blown. Good to know.” Jack said sarcastically.

“Before I opened the hatch we had a solid ten. My EMP charge did not disable it like I had hoped it would. Or at all, rather. My kit must be woefully out of date. I am certainly impressed now, however.” He looked at the door on the floor, tilting his head as if he was listening to something.

“Watch the door, Soldier, they are coming.”

Right on cue, something hit the underside of the door.

xXx

There was a song Zarya’s grandmother liked to sing to her when she was young. It was a slightly sad song about a birch tree, but Zarya loved it anyway and it made her happy. She hummed it to herself as she carried Hana down the dark hallway. This was not going to be a pleasant trip, as she discovered after the ship rocked hard enough to almost knock her over.

“Run...” Hana whispered urgently into her ear. “Run. She’s after me. Zarya, I stole her name and now she wants it back.”

Pure gibberish, but Zarya took her warning to heart and picked up the pace. None too soon, as it turned out. The floor behind them shuddered, before being torn away with a shocking force. The noise was terrific, with the screeching metal and the faraway sound of water flooding into the ship. Zarya noticed a smell. It was as though someone mixed decaying flesh, goji berries, and rusted metal together until they got the most potent mix they could.

Through the torn hole in the floor, _something_ reached through. From her point of view, as she stopped despite herself to run a flashlight over it, she saw it was a pillar of blackness that glistened unpleasantly under her light in a way that reminded her of a slug. The bumpy black surface shivered, and Zarya watched in horror as tiny white holes spread across the surface. Each hole was no bigger than a button, yet the sight of hundreds of white holes pulsating as though alive left her feeling disgusted and nauseated. What she was seeing was not a natural part of this world. But from these holes they came, little grey strings that wiggled out and flopped gracelessly to the floor.

Zarya found her sense and turned and ran. He was not made for speed, even less so with her gun and Hana in tow, but it was remarkable how fast a person can move when a fate worse than death was close behind. The hallway behind her was filling up with the chitters of thousands of kos monsters as they slide over one another in a confused pile. All at once, they found their prey, the two women retreating down the hallway, and they slithered after them as a single mindless entity. 

She could not afford to fall or falter, there was no room for hesitation here, but unfortunately for her, her knowledge of the ship’s layout would do her no good here, as everything had been flipped on its side. The hallway behind her was alive with the hungry chirping of thousand of parasitic strings, and all it would take was one of them to get inside her before her body would be turned against her. Zarya didn’t look back as she hoped over doors and ducked under broken pieces of the ceiling. She had to find a way outside, and she had to do it quickly because she couldn’t keep outrunning them forever.

A movement on her arm caught her attention and she let out a gasp when she saw one had attached itself to her hand. She watched as it tried to push its face into her skin and had managed to get about a centimetre under her skin before Zarya raised her hand and slammed it against the wall with all of her might. The little worm died with a pitiful squish and she yanked it out and tossed it aside. 

Another, only this time it was her face. It had managed to get a good way in before Zarya grabbed hold of its tiny body and yanked it out. It, too, died with a squish after Zarya threw it to the ground and stomped on it as she ran. Her face was hot with blood now, a stinging told her that pulling the kos out had left gash stretching from her jaw to her right eye, the kos’ body having cut her like paper. 

The third time was stopped simply by her raising her barrier. 

Up ahead. Up ahead there was no way forward. A large section of the roof and floor had collapsed, leaving Zarya running straight for a dead end with a swarm of monsters close behind. She gritted her teeth and realized quickly that she would have no time at all to move the debris out of the way. There was only one course of action now, and Zarya wasted no time reaching it. 

Fearlessly she stopped and spun around, her gun at the ready and shouted an obscenity in her own language as she threw a graviton surge at the approaching swarm. 

The effect worked better than she could have hoped, as the singularity completely blocked the hallway and sucked them up, and their little bodies exploded under the strength of her attack. She shouted in triumph and then looked up thoughtfully. There was a door above them, if she could climb upwards she’d be outside and thing might get a little easier. She couldn’t imagine that these things would fare very well against the wind, but she knew that it would take more than a little storm to blow her anywhere. 

With what little time she had bought for herself, Zarya threw open the door and hoisted the two of them through it. She shut it after them, but she didn’t harbour any delusions that the door would stop them for very long. Or so she thought, Zarya didn’t know that all Kos were dumb as bricks. The room she was in looked like it had been a clothing store once, but everything inside it was ruined by water and bloodstains. Zarya ignored those as she scaled the counter and worked her way up to the window high above. It was not easy climbing with a cannon, but Zarya managed it as Zarya usually did. 

Zarya swung her cannon upwards and shattered the window, making sure to activate her shield just in time to protect Hana from the falling glass. A flood of chilling wind and water hit them, but Zarya ignored it and climbed into the storm.

There was nothing but darkness and the feeling of cold wind and rain against her bare arms. The sky roared with thunder and flashed spiderwebs of lighting across the backdrop of the forbidding clouds. Here she was, between the ocean and the sky, being faced with the worst both could possibly throw at her. For a single moment she allowed herself to feel small before the might of mother nature, but that moment passed quickly. As dangerous as mother nature was, it was what was in the ship below that was the most danger to her.

Her light was useless up here, as the driving rain and oppressive darkness gave nothing more than a couple feet of vision, and the walk was treacherous. Many windows had already been shattered, and Zarya came close several times to falling. She wanted to ask Hana if she was okay, but she felt as though something besides Hana would hear her if she tried to speak. 

Zarya thought again of the song her grandmother used to sing her. Her grandmother liked to sing her lots of songs and tell her stories. They were the best part of those visits to her in which Zarya sat on her lap while they sat before a roaring fire, all of her grandmother’s oddities lying haphazardly around. It was a cozy feeling, one that Zarya missed. 

A hand wrapped itself around her ankle from one of the broken windows she had hopped over and yanked her feet out from under her. Zarya went down with a thud, but kicked hard enough at whatever had her that she felt something crack under her boot. It let go, and she scrambled to her feet, her cannon ready. From the room below a pale hand retreated from the small circle of light. Zarya’s breath picked up slightly; the arm had been bent at the elbow in a way it shouldn’t have been and the fingers were crinkled and crooked as though they had been broken several times.

Her flashlight passed over the ground around her and she saw more hands, both human and ominics, pressing up against the unbroken windows. Tiny cracks begun to appear and Zarya was quick to realize that she didn’t want anything to do with whatever was going on here. She had to get Hana to safety, and the ship couldn’t wait forever for them. 

A powerful light caught her attention when she turned to run again, and her heart soared. The ship! It was slowly circling the Dreams Within and was currently next to the massive exposed rotors. Now with a goal in mind, Zarya focused on it and ignored the windows breaking as she ran and the figures pulling themselves out into the wind, adding their own haunting wails and warlike shrieks to cacophony of it all.

Two omnics sprang before her and Zarya didn’t have time to process their twisted limbs and the thick black wires spiderwebbing their bodies before she cut them down with her cannon. They let out guttural moans that sounded far too organic and their bodies leaked a dark fluid that shouldn’t exist on them. She spared them no thought, but the human that came next, a teenage girl with curly black hair and empty pale eyes, almost made her pause. Her humanness didn’t stop Zarya from cutting her in half with her beam, but she did pay closer attention to how this human didn’t seem to bleed. 

When Zarya’s boot touched the slippery, algae and barnacle-covered underside of the ship, the light from the S.S Red Flag found her.

“ _Zarya! We see you!_ ” Lúcio’s excited voice sounded through her comm, “ _keep going! We’ll catch you!_ ”

Zarya had very little intention of stopping, especially with the shambling mass following her. 

“ _What the hell is that?_ ” Shih asked, and the light turned away from her and focused on the bodies behind her.

“ _Oh fuck-_ ” Came unfamiliar voices. 

“ _What the hell?_ ”

“ _Well, isn’t that interesting._ ” Shih sounded just as calm and authoritative as ever, “ _Prepare to fire as soon as they’re on the ship._ ”

“Zarya, look out!” Zarya turned just in time to stop Hana from getting hit full on from a feral human. One of these things was hardly enough to bring her down, but four of them was almost a challenge. Six of them were clawing at her before she decided that enough was enough. 

“Hana! Run for the ship!” She shouted, releasing Hana from her back with a shake. Hana grunted, but thankfully didn’t fall. “Go! I will hold them off!”

“I’m not leaving you!” Hana sounded almost scandalized that Zarya would even suggest it. “Not if-” She gasped and looked at the wrist on her remaining hand. Her bracelet was blinking. “Yes! Yes! Hang on!” The Korean girl slammed her chin into the button and a moment later there was a loud crash as a bright pink mech landed right next to them. She climbed in and gave Zarya a cheerful thumbs up.

“Looks like I’m back in business!”

xXx

“Well shit.” Said Jack in a deceptively mild voice after an omnic fist punched right through the door. Their guests had been hammering at it for the past minute and Jack almost welcomed the door breaking at this point. He didn’t wait for the rest of the omnic to come through, however, and chose simply to shoot the arm off at the elbow.

“Mhm.” Juniper sounded equally unperturbed. “If you ever wondered what happened to the rest of them, then here’s your answer. Keep them back, I am almost done.”

“What’s even the point?” He asked as he filled the next head, human this time, with enough bullets to turn it into a pulpy mess. There was very little blood though, he noticed. “Why do this to people?”

“There is an answer to that, but it would take far too long to explain. Some people fill their hearts with so much hatred that they are simply determined to poison the world with it. Some people simply want to do good, but in the end their actions give way to an unspeakable evil. That is how the world works.”

“You could have just said nothing and that would have made more sense than that.”

“I will be silent then.”

Another came through and Jack killed that one. And then another, and then another. Each monstrosity was a horrible parody of what a human or omnic should be. They came in with their limbs twisted at their joints at impossible angles, backs bent as if their spines had been shattered, and some of the humans were outright missing a face, all that was left of those ones were a featureless head with shreds of rotten flesh dangling from a grey mass. Poking from the very tips of their fingers, and this was something Jack noticed that all of them, omnic and human alike, shared, were black barbs that were so sharp that they left deep gouges in the walls simply by brushing over them. The feral monsters were bad enough, but Jack kept crushing kos underfoot, and their little grey bodies littered the floor around them. None of them seemed interested in infecting him, Jack noticed, and he wondered how long that would last.

“I have good news and bad news.”

“Lets hear the good news first.”

“I have, more-or-less, disabled the bomb.”

“The bad news is that it’s still going to blow, right?”

“The good news to _that_ is that it will only destroy this section of the ship. Your friends will be able to get away safely”

“But the bad news is that we have to get out of here _now._ ”

“We are very in tune with each other, Soldier: 76. It is a pity we met under these circumstances.”

“How long do we have?”

“About four minutes.”

“Terrific.”

xXx

It was very difficult for anyone to pilot a mech, and that was with two arms. Hana only had one and if she hadn’t been as good as she was, she would have found piloting it impossible. Her stump continued to throb and she kept reaching for things with her missing arm and feeling disoriented when nothing happened. However, she did the best she could with only one working gun and drove the zombie monsters back long enough for her and Zarya to reach the edge, with the ship, and safety, a mere thirty feet away.

Zarya turned and looked at her. She didn’t say anything, but Hana knew what that smile of hers meant, and she couldn’t help but grin in return. 

“Ready when you are.” Hana said, and watched gleefully as a graviton surge was launched at the horde. Without hesitation, Hana set her mech to self-destruct and launched it right in the center. Boom! Windows shattered and body parts scattered in all directions. Hana hooted as the two of them made their escape to the ship. That was beautiful and satisfying, and as long as she didn’t think about how she nearly became one of them, she could congratulate herself on a job well done. 

She would think about this later though. When she was alone in bed with nothing to distract her. Hana would remember this moment and see it in her nightmares, except all those faces would be hers, and they would all explode into more kos. More Kkeuns. They were all Kkeuns because it had gotten away. It was still alive out there, and that was the most inexcusable thing in the universe. 

But that would come later. 

“Hana!” Lúcio bounced out of nowhere and hugged her so tightly she almost had trouble breathing. 

“Lúcio! You’re okay! I was- I’m so sorry...” She hugged him back the best she could with only one arm, and he looked at her with clear, serious, eyes. 

“I know it wasn’t your fault, you hear? It was that _thing_ that made you do it, and you fought it! I knew it couldn’t take Hana Song down without a fight!”

Hana burst out laughing despite herself, so relieved that it was all finally over that she almost cried again. She looked up and saw Satya standing a distance away, watching them with a closed expression which gave nothing away. Not bothering to unhug Lúcio, Hana walked them over to Satya and offered her an apologetic smile. 

“I’m sorry for hurting you too, Satya.” She said, “I’m glad you tried to stop me. It was the right thing to do.” This seemed to make Satya relax a tiny bit and she offered Hana a small smile.

“I am glad you are well.” She said with her version of warmness, “when we get back home, I will create a new arm for you.” 

Hana smiled and turned to look at Zarya with pure admiration. “You were _amazing_ ,” she gushed at the bodybuilder, he smiled wryly at her. “And you kept your gun too!”

“You did well also.” Zarya said with a nod.

“Glad you made it lass.” Torbjörn piped up and Hana waved at him gratefully. Torbjörn's turret, Hana saw, was at work picking off any survivors of her and Zarya’s attack. 

“Are the survivors...?”

“They are down below.” Satya answered, gesturing elegantly towards the door. “They are all safe and sound.” Which had to mean that one baby she had stolen, and she finally let go of that last bit of worried tension she had in her. Things were going to be okay.

It was at this point when she realized that someone very important was missing. Where was Jack? She didn’t remember a lot of what happened after she finished sobbing into his jacket, it was all some kind of blur, and she only became lucid after Zarya carried her outside. The boat, she suddenly noticed, was pulling away from the ship, and while this caused her no small relief, it also made her panic. Where was Jack?

“He told me to leave as soon as you got here.” Said a voice from right next to her. Hana gasped and looked up at Shih who was watching her with a pitying gaze. “Said not to worry about him, so it’s better to just do as he says.”

“You’re just going to leave him behind?” Hana gasped, horrified that anyone would consider doing such things, but this was the very same woman who left them to this horror to begin with, and Hana genuinely hated her for it. If Shih had never left them, then they would have had a way to escape. The survivors wouldn’t have been so vulnerable, and this whole mess with the Great Mother might not have happened. Yet here they were, and it was all Shih’s fault. Worst yet, she was going to leave Jack once again.

“Hate me all you want girlie, but I am the captain of this ship, and I’ll decide what happens here.”

The ship was disappearing rapidly in the storm, the S.S Red Flag was every bit as swift as Shih had claimed, and not even the storm slowed it down any particular degree. Hana wondered why the Great Mother was letting her go. Hana had stolen her name and knew her nature, this was not something the monster wanted others to know. So why was she being allowed to leave?

All her thoughts and worries crowded her mind, leaving her feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, but each and every one of them fell to the ground and shattered when the ship exploded into a bloom of red and yellow which pierced the night to an almost painful degree. It was then, in the bright light of the flames stood the Great Mother. The flames were so bright that only her outline could be seen, but even with only that, the sight was terrifyingly monstrous. She stood on four legs and had a deformed head on one end and a long, whip-like tail on the other, and she was big. Hana couldn’t comprehend how big she was, maybe sixty or so feet long. Maybe even bigger. 

The plume of flame quickly burned out under the sea and rain, and the Great Mother disappeared from view.

“Did you see that?” Asked one of Shih’s crew, her voice stricken and terrified. 

“That was a goddamn sea monster.” Another said.

Hana only stood at the railing with her remaining hand clutching the metal so tightly her fingers began to hurt. 

_Jack..._

The Great Mother was the worst kind of terror to ever live in the ocean, but Hana’s thoughts were all on Jack. She hoped with everything she had that somehow he managed to avoid being roasted. He survived a room full of kos for god’s sake! He survived the unsurvivable, and he had to do it again! Hana refused to believe that something as stupid as an explosion could take him down. 

“Athena!” Hana barked, only to remember that she didn’t have her comm anymore. She scowled and snatched Lúcio’s off his head, ignoring his “Hey!” of protest. “Athena! What is Soldier: 76’s status? Is he...?”

“ _Soldier: 76’s vitals are greatly weakened and he is suffering from blunt force trauma, among other forms of injury. He is in need of immediate medical attention._ ”

That was all Hana needed. 

“I’m going.” She declared and hobbled over to her mech. This, it turned out, was not a very popular decision.

“Now hold _up_.” Lúcio stood defiantly in front of her, “you’re missing an arm and you just finished going through hell! You are _not_ up for this!”

“I agree.” Said Satya, who looked critically at her stump. “You might not even make it all the way there and all the way back.”

“It’s a fools errand.” Torbjörn interjected. “Jack knew what he was getting into when he went off to do his usual stupid heroics.”

“So you’re just going to leave him?” Hana asked, incredulous that her own comrades were being so cold and pragmatic. “Besides, I’m the only one who _can_ get him! I can fly, something none of you can do! And also...” She paused only for a moment as the ship jolted, as if struck by something below. “She is after me. If you want to get away, then I need to get off this ship for a little while. Don’t worry, I’ll catch up eventually.”

She allowed no more arguments before she sidestepped Lúcio and climbed into her mech. Hana took a deep breath and looked out into the storm. No time for hesitation; she hurtled herself into the void.

xXx

_A few minutes earlier_

“So why aren’t we going up again?” Jack grunted as they fought through another wave of infected as they flung themselves mindlessly against his bullets or were cut down by Juniper’s staff. Juniper had insisted that they go down into the horde rather than climb out the window, and he had been surprised when the human had gone without too much argument. 

Why Jack seemed to trust him at all was a mystery to Juniper, he had not had a human trust him in a very, very long time, possibly for good reason. He appreciated it though, more than Jack could ever really understand. It meant that he was moving forward in a way that mattered, and he should keep moving forward. The past was a terrible thing.

“The Great Mother is standing on top of the ship.” He explained, not bothering to tell him how he knew this, “between her and her minions, I feel we have a better chance with her minions. Also, she knows I am here and she hates me about as much as she can hate any one person.” Jack grunted in that charming old soldier way of his and didn’t challenge him on it. Something about their interactions with each other made Juniper feel responsible for the human in a way he hadn’t felt when they first met. It was suddenly very important to him that they both survive this, which was why he never suggested that they just sit around the bomb and accept their death with grace and dignity. 

Instead they may end up dying covered in vile-smelling fluids and knee-deep in severed limbs. That suited Juniper just fine; he never believed that the good grace of the Iris would ever grant him a quick and dignified death. Jack deserved better, however, but the human’s fate was beyond anything Juniper can help with. 

_Ah, but that’s not true, is it?_

It wasn’t true. Juniper had one trick up his sleeve. Just one, but he had been saving it for a moment when it truly counted. If left by himself he wouldn’t have bothered to use it here, as he was sure he could survive simply by throwing himself into the ocean and sinking to the sea floor. The Great Mother had very little ability to see him, so he could have gotten away. The human, however, was not so lucky.

_Why do you fight so hard?_

A good question. 

_”We are all one within the Iris”_

Yes. That’s what he said. That’s what he always had said. Ah Mondatta, if only you knew. Maybe he had known, Juniper was well aware that there had always been something extremely strange about the leader of the Shambali. Not that it mattered, Juniper hadn’t been a part of the Shambali for decades now, and Mondatta was dead. 

Thoughts of Mondatta were terrible things. Painful things. They shot through his heart and soul like shards of ice and often got lodged in there for days afterwards. 

“Close your eye.” He commanded before twirling his staff, building up the power needed for his next attack. “ _Behold the Iris._ ” Juniper said in a low, menacing voice as he brought down his staff in a blinding wave of light. The monsters around him screeched and tottered around, disoriented and upset by their glimpse of the Iris. 

A light beep sounded next to him and a wide screen popped up before Soldier: 76’s visor. Juniper watched with interest as he mowed down the confused monsters with surgical precision, and a moment later the hallway was cleared out. It was deeply impressive, as Juniper doubted he could have done this on his own. 

“Nice trick.”

“Yours too.”

There wasn’t much more two emotionally inept people could say to each other, so they moved their way down the hall.

So many bodies. To think that once upon a time all of these people had been vibrant, living creatures who had thoughts of their own and had complete mastery over their bodies. Not even in their worst dreams had they imagined that their lives would end like this, and the only mercy they could have possibly had was that it was very likely that their minds were destroyed long before the Great Mother twisted and mutilated their bodies for her own amusement. 

Mondatta had disagreed heavily with Juniper’s version of justice, but looking down at these lost lives, what other thing could be done for the dead?

The hallways were a horror show. Everything was where it shouldn’t be, and the bloodstains were starting to run from all the water pouring in from the rooms above. On they went, killing anything they encountered along the way. All the while, Juniper had a dreadful feeling of being tracked, and this was confirmed when the rooms above them were ripped away. The howl of the wind and the blinding drive of the rain made it maddeningly difficult to see around them, and this was a good thing; Very few people had ever seen the Great Mother in all her glory, and those few people were never the same again.

He grabbed Jack’s arm, who had slowed for a moment to look up into the darkness, and the four large white orbs peering down at them. 

“Do not look.” And he pulled him along. 

The monster let out a wail of triumph. She had him. After all this time, she had finally caught Juniper, and she planned to destroy him. A retching sounded above, followed by a watery gurgle and an unpleasant splatter as the leviathan coughed up a writhing ball right into the hallway behind them. The kos, Juniper noted grimly, would have no practical effect on him, not anymore, but they would slow them down considerably, and that would prove fatal. 

It would seem that Juniper had no choices anymore. If he wanted this human to live, and he found himself wanting him to, then he would have to call in a debt from a creature every bit as foul as the Great Mother herself.

“In here.” He said, pausing to yank open a door to a room below and jumping through. Jack had the sense to close it after himself, and the two of them found themselves in what looked like a store. From his person, Juniper pulled out an opaque white crystal and held it before him. It glowed a mysterious blue light, and Juniper made his request. 

He just hoped it would be enough to withstand the imminent explosion.

xXx

It was easy being gung-ho about flying towards a ruined ship while a terrible monster lurked about, especially during a storm, while on the S.S Red Flag. It was another thing to actually be doing it, and being aware that She could leap out of the water any moment now and swallow Hana and her mech whole. Heck yes she was terrified, but something as simple as fear never stopped Hana from doing anything.

“Where are you?” She muttered to herself as she examined the data Athena had given her. It would seem as though Jack was in a room that was now below water, and she found herself imagining a number of terrible things that could happen before she got there. It was with sheer force of will that she pulled her mind back on track and focused on piloting her mech, which wasn’t easy to do with one hand, especially with the wind. It was enough for her that she was able to keep it in the air at all, but she definitely wasn’t going to do any fancy flying anytime soon. 

The ship, or what little of it Hana could see, was in total ruin and was rapidly sinking. She grimaced and pulled out a tiny rebreather she had the foresight to take before she left the Red Flag and stuck it in her mouth. Her mech was not made for water, but it should keep working long enough for her to find Jack and return to the surface.

Her scanners picked up a very large hole in the surface, and she decided to go down that one. She took a deep breath, the rebreather momentarily forgotten, and pushed the throttle and plunged into the water below, her mech’s light clicking on. Her wound throbbed and stung painfully, the salt water not being kind. The world was instantly quieter, casting an eerie feeling of being in another realm as her mech drifted slowly down the narrow hallways. 

_Thunk_.

Hana let out a startled gasp when a charred corpse hit her windshield before floating away. There were others, but thankfully not a single one of them moved.

She kept going.

Jack’s tracker beeped more rapidly in her ear and she figured she couldn’t be far now. The change in temperature was sudden, and Hana slowed her mech to a stop. The sea around her had been cold, but not frigid. It felt like he had mysteriously found her way into arctic waters, that was how cold it was. She glanced at her temperature readings and noted worriedly that it was -15 Celsius, and here she was with barely anything on. 

The door she had been looking for was encased in clear ice, the water was even colder the closer to it she got. There was no time for anything delicate, so Hana tightened her grip on her throttle and bashed her way through. The door, and the wall around it, gave away with a crack, and thick shards of ice floated around her as she shone her light inside.

There was Jack, encased in ice and attached to the wall.

It was so bizarre that Hana didn’t immediately register it. He was still wearing his mask, though his clothes were all torn to pieces and the light armour he wore under his jacket had been broken in several places. She got closer and saw red marks covering the right side of his body, marks that looked suspiciously like they had come from teeth. Almost as if something had taken a bite out of him and then decided that it didn’t like the taste...

“ _A debt repaid._ ”

Never in her life had Hana heard a voice so cold and so inhumane, it was as though the very essence and brutality of winter was whispering to her, breathing its chilling breath into her mind. It felt as though her bones had gone brittle, and she couldn’t move her hand from the throttle, her eyes blinked once and refused to open again. Panic started to overtake her as she struggled against her body for the hundredth time that day, but this time she felt even more helpless and vulnerable. She couldn’t move, and she was so, so cold.

“ _Ah, you need not fear me, little one. You reek of her. You will taste like her too. Such a pity, I would have liked to have made you mine._ ”

Disbelief surged through her as the voice, sinister and evil as it was, took on a new tone. It sounded just like Ana Amari, but the older woman’s grandmotherly warmth and cheer was gone.

“ _Feel no fear and she will have no power over you. Remember that, Hana Song._ ”

And then the cold was gone, so suddenly that Hana deliriously wondered if it had been there to begin with. She opened her eyes and saw Jack floating against the wall, all traces of ice had melted away. Her fingers were unstuck now, so she nudged her mech closer and firmly caught Jack’s legs with her gun and pushed them against her mech. It wasn’t ideal, at all, but Hana’s gun arms weren’t made to carry fully grown men.

Not wanting much more to do with this hellhole of a ship, Hana drove them to the surface as fast as she could and exploded out of the water. The storm, she noticed, was slowly abating; the wind was dying down and the rain had shrunk to an energetic trickle. She landed on the one bit of ship that was still above the water and set Jack down, and was about to get out of her mech to give him CPR when he stirred feebly and sat up all on his own. 

“You’re something else.” Hana was in awe. This man had just went through five different kinds of hell, and he still somehow found the energy to move.

“So I’m told.” Jack grunted and pulled himself to his feet, using the side of the mech as support. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“You’re welcome.” Hana huffed, annoyed, but not surprised, by his casual disregard for his own near-death experience.

“Where’s Juniper?”

“Uhh... who?”

“The omnic.”

“Oooh... I didn’t see him.” Which was completely true, no one else besides Jack showed up on her sensors. “Should we go back and look for him?”

“No.”

“Okay?”

Silence fell and they looked out over the ocean together. Darkness was still heavy outside their circle of light, and all they could hear was the sea. It was the most peaceful moment Hana’s had in days, and she relished it, even if it didn’t last.

A large bubble erupted from the water about thirty feet away, and they were instantly alert. 

“She’s coming back.” Hana said, “quick, get on!” Jack didn’t move two steps before something massive rose from the sea and loomed over them, her four-eyed gaze bore down on them radiating a hatred so intense that Hana almost felt it burn into her skin. Her skin, or scales, Hana couldn’t be sure, was so black that it seemed to suck away any light around her, leaving her an empty void within the world. 

But the Great Mother wasn’t the only one who felt tendrils of hatred curdle like poison inside her. Hana’s hand shook at her throttle and tears stung at her eyes, but neither came from a place of fear. 

“ _YOU!_ ” She screamed at her, and she looked up to meet the monster’s gaze. The most important thing in the world, right now, was that this horror knew how much Hana hated her, and to know that she should fear her. And so a one-armed Hana, dishevelled, wounded, and exhausted, lay inside her mech and shouted at an enormous nightmare, her hatred and fury amplifying her voice so that it carried into the darkness.

“How DARE you take my body!” Hana fearlessly moved her mech closer as she spoke, punctuating each sentence with another step. “How DARE you hurt my friends! I’m not afraid of you! I know your name and I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOU!” This time when she advanced, the Great Mother took a step back, the white orbs growing wider with shock. Hana wasn’t finished yet. She wasn’t going to be finished until the Great Mother’s flesh was burned off her bones and her remains fall forgotten to the bottom of the ocean. 

“My name is Hana Song and I’m going to be the one to kill you.” She did not shout this time, her voice dropping to a cold, even tone as she stared the creature down, and she knew that she had heard her. The Great Mother saw her now, and they would not forget each other. “I’m not going to stop until you are gone, even if it kills me. I swear this on my life! Do you hear me...?” And she spoke Her name, and the Great Mother broke her silence with a howl and launched herself at them. 

Hana was ready. The moment the monster made a movement towards them, she activated her self-destruct and flung it into the Great Mother’s widening mouth. The pulsating blue light from her mech slide down the Great Mother’s throat and vibrated there for a moment before exploding, the force of it taking Her head off entirely, and the monster’s body fell slowly into the sea. 

Panting, Hana didn’t stop to look at the mess she made, and instead called another mech and jumped inside. 

“Let’s go.” She said to Jack, who had been watching her with an unreadable expression behind his mask.

“You’re something else, you know that?” Jack said, sounding both impressed and proud, which in turn made Hana feel very pleased with herself. She responded with a very Jack-like grunt and indicated for Jack to cling the outside of her mech. Even if she could tolerate being crushed into a small space with someone, she doubted that Jack could fit inside her mech anyway. 

Off they flew into what remained of the storm. As they flew, Hana looked up and noticed that the stars were starting to show through patches of dark grey clouds, and the moon cast a strong silver glow over them and the ocean below. The S.S Red Flag was just ahead, and true safety was almost upon them, yet Hana wondered why she didn’t feel like this was over, as though there was something left that they had to do. 

Worries for another time, however.

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

The unmistakable sound of wing beats suddenly flooded her world, and her mech shuddered side to side from the turbulence. She looked anxiously at Jack, who gave her a thumbs up through her windshield to show that he was fine. He then pointed up, and Hana looked.

Her breath was instantly crushed from her lungs when she saw an outline of something massive made by the light of the moon against the thinning clouds. From her point of view, it looked as if it had wings that stretched from one horizon to another, and each wing beat caused the air to throb with its power. An energy pulsed around them, pulling at her mind and filling her head with a sound so high-pitched that she had to resist the urge to let go of her throttle and cover an ear. Hana looked up again at the peak of the ceaseless ringing and saw a bright golden light explode in the sky above the clouds like fireworks, and the wing beats stopped, the mysterious shape disappearing as if it had never been. 

Once again they were left in the silence of the night, only this time it was true silence. There were no more monsters here, and the sea and sky were as peaceful as they always should have been.

“I think,” Jack said slowly, “I’ve had enough of this bullshit. Let’s go home.”

Hana agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has stayed with me this far! This arc wasn't meant to be this long, and Zarya's moment of badassary was actually meant to be Torbjorn's, who I meant to give a more active role in defending the ship, but, sadly, I had to sacrifice it for Zarya's chase scene. 
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> Winston, Ana, Pharah, Tracer, Bastion, and Mei all journey to the North to investigate the mysterious revival of a long-dead base, but they encounter tragedy before they even get there, and, in no time at all, end up in a fight for their lives in the wilds of the merciless Canadian north. One monster kills with a nightmarish horror. Another kills with ice and hunger. The third, however, kills with gentle thoughts and soulful dreams. It is, perhaps, the cruelest of all the three, as he offers a tired soul the one thing their heart desperately desires. If our heroes are to survive, then they must resist temptation, happiness, and love, to uncover a terrifying world-wide conspiracy.


	14. A Beautiful Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world is a happy place, filled with beauty and a golden light that only promises peace and love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings at all! This is probably the tamest chapter I've ever written, I'm so proud of myself.

They bought this house together many, many years ago. It’s a lovely two-story thing with its tasteful brown and cream paint and carefully tended flowers. Inside it has several bedrooms for the constant stream of guests Ana has when she’s here, and a few rooms for exercising and reading and playing games. Having a very large yard was important to Ana when they were looking together for a house. “Need somewhere for the children and grandchildren to play.” She had joked at the time. There’s a pond in the backyard that is filled with ducks and fish, and it is here that Ana sits now, throwing pieces of fishfood to the kois as they swarm at the shore. 

The fading, golden rays of the sun glint off the water and a gentle breeze stirs the willow tree she is sitting under, giving the world a sense of peace and dream-like tranquillity. The years of working at Overwatch has given her an appreciation for quiet moments like these. A moment where all is right and happiness is abundant. She’s been lucky that she’s had so many happy moments in her life. Too many to count, almost. She thinks of her daughter, of Fareeha, and feels a warm burst of pride for her daughter. What a good girl, and to think that she’ll be here to visit her soon.

Footsteps approach and she turns to smile at the massive figure who approaches carrying a tray laden with cups of tea and the tasty cupcakes he loves to make. 

“You spoil me.”She says fondly as he settles down next to her. He laughs his usual full-bodied laugh, puts his arm around her, and kisses the top of her head.

“It is you who spoils _me_ ,” he says, and pushes a strand of grey hair from her face. It’s so easy for her to remember how much she loves him, and how much he loves he when he looks at her as if she hung the moon and scattered the stars to the heavens. “Every moment I am with you feels like a blessing, and not even being married to you for thirty years has dampened the fires of my passion.”

Ana bursts out laughing at his earnestness and then sighs. “Reinhardt,” she says and leans against a muscled arm, “I love you very much, and I am glad that I share this life with you.” There’s more that can be said, there’s always more, but Ana saves that for another day. What’s the rush, after all? They have the rest of forever together.

She picks up her teacup and takes a sip. Perfect, like always. “The kids are arriving tomorrow, yes? I hope we have enough snacks and band-aids. Last time they were here, we ran out of both almost instantly. Who knew grandchildren of yours could lack so much fear.”

“Ah, my love, you are no stranger to throwing yourself in the thick of things either. At least I am usually wearing armour when I take on six enemies at once.”

“What’s the point in living if you don’t live at least a little dangerously?”

He laughs again. There are few people more handsome than Reinhardt when he laughs, and Ana is of the personal opinion that he wears his years more gracefully than men half his age. It is unfair to compare Reinhardt to ordinary men, however, as her husband is unlike any other.

“Do not worry, I went and bought enough of everything to last us the weekend! And I believet hat Jack and Gabriel were supposed to be arriving tomorrow. Pity that they won’t be staying with us!”

“Hah, Gabriel says that they’ve both gotten too grumpy in their old age that a horde of children is personally terrifying for them.”

“And what is Jack’s excuse?”

“He didn’t bother giving one.”

“Ha!”

“Fareeha, Angela, and Jesse will be staying with us though.” She’s always been fond of Jesse. He has all the markings of someone who spent his youth nearly feral, and Ana is so proud of the man he is today. She likes to occasionally joke with Gabriel about fighting him for custody. 

In which Gabriel often replies “I’ll give him to you for free.”

“If only this vacation could last forever.” She says after a few moments of contemplative silence, “but alas, we have to return to work soon. You’d think that the world can make do without Captain Amari for two weeks.”

“If only the world was so considerate.”

Ana laughs.

“Yes, if only.”

“We can stay like this, Ana.” Reinhardt says, his voice warm, “all you need to do is sleep and you will know no more sadness. 

You deserve that, my love.”

xXx

“Athena! When will they be here?” Winston asks excitedly as he finishes up his final Christmas preparations. He’s outdone himself this year, everyone is absolutely sure to be impressed by his decorations and cooking, though Emily was a tremendous help with both. Lena has a puppy-like ability to always get underfoot whenever she tries to help with things, but Winston appreciates her efforts anyway.

“Everyone should be arriving shortly.” Athena replies, “Lena says that she will be running a little late, but Emily should be arriving on time.” Winston scoffs. Typical Lena, it’s a good thing that Emily has both feet planted firmly on the ground. 

A beep on his screen tells him that the aircraft has arrived.

“They’re here!”

Winston makes his way to the bay and is instantly tackled with a lightning-fast hug from Emily, who apologized for Lena’s lateness, and Mei, who chattered excitedly about her upcoming conference she’s giving about global warming and how nervous she is. They’re followed immediately by the rest of the Overwatch team, and there are a lot of “Winston! Good to see you!” and “Merry Christmas!” Winston warmly greets everyone and ushers them all inside, but the very last person out of the carrier gets his full attention. A bright smile spreads across his face and he gives this person the biggest, firmest hug he can possibly give without breaking his spine. 

“Harold!” He says, letting go of Harold Winston, his mentor, and taking a step back. “I thought you were busy at Oasis!”

Harold laughs and holds out a slightly squished box, “Christmas is a time for family, and I can’t imagine spending it without you. The project can wait a couple days, it’s not going anywhere.” Winston smiles gratefully and takes the box, and the two of them go inside.

Dinner is a loud and energetic affair. Everyone loves the cooking and Winston is quick to credit Emily for her contribution, and she blushes while Lena bounces happily at her side and starts talking about all the cookies Emily makes at home. A lot of the older ones start telling old war stories, which Winston is very interested in, and a lot of the younger ones have set up various games, including a couple intense rounds of “Hana owns everyone in video games”, though everyone tells Genji that he put up a good fight. 

After that, everyone settles in for chatter and gift giving. Winston is shy about this part, as giving gifts to people makes him just a little bit anxious, but he relaxes when no one tells him that they hate them. Winston opens his gift from his mentor when everyone else is busy with other things, giving them a few moments alone. Within the box is a snow globe, and in that snow globe is the outline of a man holding a small gorilla’s hand. 

“This is wonderful, thank you.” He says, and blinks tears from his eyes. He’s not sure why, but the sight of the two of them standing together causes something in his chest to squeeze tight, like a faint echo of a forgotten wound. The feeling goes away very quickly when his mentor pats his arm and looks at him with pride and affection. The way the golden light from the sun shins makes Harold look almost unreal.

“You’ve done so well for yourself Winston, I couldn’t be prouder. To think that once upon a time you were just a little guy stealing my glasses and causing us to constantly go short on peanut butter. But I knew you were special right from the start, and not because you’re a genetically engineered gorilla. To be born with such intellect, and the willingness to right the wrongs and make the world a better place? That’s not something everyone has, and I’m so glad that you are you.”

Winston beams at the praise and his heart feels like it’s filling with more joy than it can contain. This moment is perfect. There’s so much love and joy and happiness, that Winston doesn’t want this moment to end. 

“I’m happy to be here with you.” Harold says with his usual kind smile, the kind that reaches into his eyes and radiates from his voice, “it doesn’t need to end either. All you need to do is sleep, Winston, and you will never be alone again.

I promise.”

xXx

Zenyatta has volunteered to help Bastion with his garden. Bastion agrees almost instantly, and this has lead them here, the two of them quietly pulling out weeds from between Bastion’s rhododendrons and tulip and trimming the branches of his roses. He has vegetables here too, and it is Reinhardt who jovially tells him that his vegetables are the tastiest he’s ever had. This makes Bastion happy, and encourages him to make more. He has aloe vera too, a plant that Zenyatta says is his favourite, which prompted Bastion to fill four large pots with the plant. Zenyatta tells him that these plants are used by humans to heal themselves, and that it is a very useful plant to have around. 

The world is quiet. Soft. Wonderful. Beautiful. Everything Bastion loves about the natural world is contained inside this little area. Zenyatta brings with him a feeling of peace and tranquillity, and it is his presence here that makes his garden go from lovely to radiant. There cannot be any other being in the world who shines so brightly with an almost divinely golden light. 

Ganymede has chosen his spot on Zenyatta’s shoulder, and the two of them are quick to understand one-another. They watch with amusement as the little yellow bird hops from one of Zenyatta’s orbs to the next, giving each one a peck as he goes. Bastion thinks about how much he likes Zenyatta’s laugh.

Bastion’s experience with the world is still surprisingly little, as very few of either omnic or human have ever wanted much to do with him, but he’s been around the members of Overwatch, Zenyatta specifically, to wonder if maybe if this is love. All those times people have described love to him pales in comparison to the real thing. Love is more beautiful than simple gestures and pretty words. Bastion still doesn’t fully understands, but he feels as if he will someday. 

It’s easy for Bastion to think about the things he loves. He loves Ganymede, who is his dearest friend. He loves his friends, like Reinhardt, Lena, Mei (especially Mei), Genji, and Ana. He also loves Zenyatta, who is a little different from being a friend somehow. Not more, not less, just different. It is a good thing, Bastion thinks, that he had met Zenyatta. Zenyatta’s mere existence makes everything okay.

“Tell me your thoughts, my friend.” The omnic monk says, and the two of them start to talk. About nothing. About everything. They talk about the Iris. They talk about history. They talk about Ganymede and many other wonderful things.

The sunlight shines on Zenyatta’s plating, giving him an angelic glow.

This moment is perfect. If only it could last forever.

“We can stay like this.” Zenyatta says, tilting his head to peer up at them. As always, he is able to see Bastion’s thoughts. “Rest, my friend, and we will be forever united like this within the Iris.

Trust in me.”

xXx

It hadn’t been his intention to bring either of them to Ilios, but here he was anyway with a barely not-feral Jesse McCree and Ana’s thirteen-year-old brat. Jack has gone to do some shopping at the city’s market place, leaving Gabriel with the task of keeping two fearless teenagers entertained until dinner.

Or so he thought when he started out. Turns out, the two of them are perfectly capable of keeping themselves entertained without him there. To the point where Gabriel finds himself saying “Stop standing on the goddamn railings!” and “Go and give that wallet back to its owner,” more than once. Once again, he hadn’t volunteered for this, as Jesse only just barely accepts his authority, and Fareeha doesn’t at all. She’s just like her mother, Gabriel thinks as he plucks her from the railing over a hundred foot drop for the third time and hauls her irritably away. God this kid could do with some good old-fashioned fear of heights. 

Still, Gabriel is fond of both of them. He watches with a smile as the two of them try on silly hats at a store. It’s hard to believe that Jack once thought that Jesse was beyond help. Just goes to show that Jack doesn’t know shit. Of course, the kid is still a bit rough around the edges, but they’ve only known each other for a year, so who knows where else Jesse will go. 

He buys them icecream, hoping that this will keep them out of trouble long enough for him to take a breather. This effort turns out to be futile, as Fareeha challenges Jesse to an icecream eating contest and Jesse accepts. Two minutes later, the two of them have slammed their faces into the table and are moaning about brain freeze.

“Aw, you’re having fun, Uncle Gabe.” Fareeha scolds him gently after he grumbles out a brief bout of complaining. “You’re with us! How can you not be having any fun?” She says this with the absolute knowledge that she is well loved and can’t imagine anyone thinking otherwise. 

Jesse laughs and only offers Gabriel a cocky grin when the older man shoots him a withering glare. 

“Hey boss, should we get some sunscreen for ol’ Commander Morrison?” Jesse asks after they stop outside a convenience store, “last time we were out in sun this bright he went and turned red as a lobster. It’s physically painful to look at.” At least none of them have this problem, Jesse doesn’t say, but they’re all thinking it.

Jack gives them a flat expression when they all get back to the house they’re renting and present the sunscreen to him with a flourish. 

“I’ll have you know that I brought my own.” He grumbles, but takes the sunscreen anyway while muttering, “jerk,” in an undertone only Gabriel could hear. Gabriel gives him a wide smile.

They all help make dinner, though Jesse is demoted to only cutting vegetables because, as Jack says, “this kid wouldn’t know quality food if it hit him in the face.” Fareeha helps by setting the table and cutting an onion because she ends up impatient by how everyone else waffles over this task.

“I’m not crying.” She says firmly through eyes full of onion tears. 

“Sure you’re not, sweetie.” Gabriel and Jack say at the same time with the same dry tone. 

They settle down for dinner in a dining room that shines gold with the setting sun that comes through the room’s large window, which gives the room, and the people in it, a dream-like quality. Music from the streets filter through an open window, and the room fills with chatter as Jack tells them all the things he’s seen while in the market.

Gabriel is silent as he listens to it all. There’s something... something he can’t explain. The feeling that he should be in terrible pain right now, the absence of it causing him to feel unsettled. It’s stupid though, as he’s not in agony, nor does he have any reason to believe that he’s ever been. His world is filled with this beautiful golden light that promises nothing but happiness and peace wherever it touches.

What a beautiful moment, he thinks.

“Hey boss.” Jesse pipes up. Gabriel looks at him and notices that the light of the golden sun glints off the boy’s dark eyes. 

“Yeah?”

“It’s nice here ain’t it? All this peace and junk?”

“Yeah.”

“It can stay this way y’know. You just need to fall asleep and everything will stay like this forever.

Don’t you deserve to be happy?”

xXx

Lena wakes up groggy and feeling as though Reinhardt had personally punched her in the chest. Then proceeded to kick her all over until she was sore. Her memory is foggy and she can’t imagine why she’s in a hospital bed. 

“Ah, you are awake.”

Her heart seizes and flutters when she realizes who is standing over her. The warm, golden rays of light from the hospital window gently alight on the pale plating and clothing of a tall and regal omnic. It gives him a mysterious and nearly god-like radiance that leaves her awe-struck. And he is here by her bed!

“Mondatta.” She manage to choke out between dry lips. Her memory abruptly returns. “You’re okay... I thought...”

“You took a bullet meant for me, young one. It is one thing to hear of your bravery and determination, another to see it in person.

“How am I not dead?” She wonders, closing her eyes and trying to think of that. Memories of her fight with Widowmaker come to her, but strangely there are parts of it that elude her. She quickly decides not to think much about it.

“I possess some healing abilities of my own.” Mondatta replies, “I could never have forgiven myself if you were to die in my stead. For the world to be without someone like you is a crime in itself.” The high praise from someone she admires so much makes her blush with pleasure and delight. She did it. She saved him. All is right with the world.

The hospital door opens and Emily spills into the room, her eyes wide with distress.

“Lena!” She gasps and flings herself at Lena’s side. “I came as fast as I could, I was so worried1”

“It’s okay, Emily!” Lena says, her heart swelling with love as she looks at her girlfriend with affection and reassurance. Emily is so good about the danger Lena occasionally puts herself into and she knows that the redhead worries often. Lena wishes she could ease her worries, but Lena also knows that she’s still needed in the world to do what she has to do. The golden light from the window catches in Emily’s hair and glints in her eyes. God, she’s so lucky to have her.

“It’s all going to be okay.”

Later on, she’s at their apartment, her chest is still in bandages, but she’s alive. She’s alive and she’s watching a news story about the success of Mondatta’s speech and the foiled assassination attempt. Maybe the world can right itself, Lena thinks. Maybe now there will be justice for the omnics now that Mondatta is here to take care of it all. This is the world she likes to live in; A world where things happen as they should, and the oppressed are allowed to keep their hope.

Winston had arrived just an hour earlier and the three of them are hanging out in the living room, having an energetic game of monopoly. 

“You’re cheating.” Winston accuses Emily, who only gives him her most charming smile.

“Am not.”

“You are!”

And it goes on like that for some time until the doorbell rings. 

“I got it!” Lena says and bounces to her feet. She ignores their protests and zips over to the door.

It’s Mondatta again. He asks if the two of them can speak and Lena is quick to accept and they move onto the balcony.

Lena has never known London to look so beautiful and at peace with itself. The moon and the stars cast a mysterious silver light on the world, but there’s something off about it too. As if the silver light of the moon is showing her something the golden light of the sun did not.

Still, for her to stand here under such a beautiful sky with her best friend Winston and girlfriend Emily in the apartment behind her, and to have the omnic whose words inspire her stand next to her, she can’t help but feel as if this is a perfect moment. If only she can stay in this kind of beauty forever.

“Ms. Oxton.” Mondatta says, his voice as mysterious and tranquil as the silver light of the night itself. “Does all of this make you happy?”

What a question!

“I’ve never been happier.” She replies, “It’s like the world is the way it should be.”

He turns to look at her, his diamond shaped dots seem to glow brighter as he holds her gaze. No, it’s almost as if he’s looking _through_ her. Her soul is being gently examined and Mondatta sees her in a way no one else has ever seen her. He has no expression, but she hears the graveness in his voice.

“If you had a choice between choosing a dream in which your every desperate wish could be granted, or a reality that is cruel and unjust, which path would you take?”

The question hits her and the world around her feels as if it is losing its mystic glow.

“What... what do you mean? Wouldn’t I want the dream in that case?”

“A dream is not the truth, Ms. Oxton, as pretty as they sometimes can be. The truth can be painful, ugly, and filled with horror, but it is the truth nonetheless. The reality of the truth can be changed, however. Injustices can be brought to justices, wrongs can be righted. That is the advantage of living in a world that allows for both. It is always a long, hard-fought battle, but it is always a battle worth fighting. Would you prefer a beautiful lie or an unjust truth? Decide quickly, Ms. Oxton, as your time grows short.”

The outer corners of her world are fading to black. The only thing that seems real anymore is her and Mondatta.

“Do you remember what happened? Do you know where you are right now?”

What truly happened?

It is so strange. She tries to remember, but it’s like a block in her mind is stopping her from touching something deeply painful, like a parent gently trying to stop their child from touching a hot stove. 

“I... can’t.” She struggles now because she wants to remember what it is she’s forgotten, but she’s not sure why. Why would she want to remember something painful? There’s no point if she could live in a world that’s good and filled with golden light. What’s so bad about a beautiful lie anyway? Even if none of this IS real...?

“If you want to face the truth and continue your fight, as terrible and thankless as it is, I can help you. If you wish to live in a beautiful moment forever, then all you need to do is sleep. But Ms. Oxton, if you choose to sleep, you will cease to live in any true way, and you can never be saved.

The choice is yours, Lena.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me some time to get used to writing a whole bunch of new characters, but I hope I've done them justice.
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> A beautiful lie or the ugly truth?
> 
> Only pain and suffering await our heroes if they leave the safety of a perfect dream, but death is sure to find them if they stay. 
> 
> What will they choose?


	15. Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who knew the truth could be so painful.

It is so tempting to sleep. Lena likes this world where things go right.

But.

If this is the lie? If Winston and Emily aren’t real? If...?

That last If haunts her.

“Did I really save you?”

The words fall from her lips and she instantly wishes she can take them back. It’s this question to causes her heart to recoil as if she’d been burned and, in a moment of almost-clarity, she feels as if she already knows the answer. Some part of her rages against it, calling her a fool for touching it when the answer hurts so much. The beautiful world around her is finally gone, entirely swept away by the force of her broken heart.

“No.” Mondatta says, his voice is kind and holds no accusation. 

Lena’s lips tremble and she covers her mouth, tears begin to leak from her eyes and she watches them fall from her face and into the silver void below. All of London has disappeared by now. Her perfect moment is gone, and the golden light is no more. A hand, cool, but not cold, touches her cheek and pushes her chin around to face him. His face is as cool as regal as ever, his features make him look as if he’s in a state of permanent contemplation. It reminds her of someone, but she can’t remember who.

“Do not weep for me.” He says, “I knew the dangers that came with what I do, and hope is not yet lost.”

“But you’re dead.” She whispers, “you’re dead and it’s all my fault.” Memory seeps back to her and she’s hit with what feels like a film reel scrolling through her mind almost too fast for her to comprehend. 

Widowmaker.

A bullet.

The horrified scream from a stricken crowd. 

“Everything is falling apart with omnic rights. The whole thing with Russia-”

“Hush” Mondatta turns her head again, trying to get her to look at him. She doesn’t want to and closes her eyes, alone in her misery. 

“The world will go on without me, Lena. Those who have heard my words and have taken them to heart will continue to fight for a better tomorrow. You are one such example Lena, and it honours me greatly to know that you fought for me as fiercely as you did, and that you fight for the world as fiercely as you do. In the end, I am only one person, but it will be people like you who will bring change.”

Lena’s not sure she believes that, but she opens her eyes anyway. Her ceaseless memory of her failure engulfs her, leaving her with the suffocating feeling of drowning in something desperately unpleasant. 

Widowmaker.

A bullet.

The horrified scream from a stricken crowd.

“ _Why?!_ xXx

There’s nothing wrong with a quick nap, Winston thinks, his eyelids already growing heavy. The golden light reaches into his mind and tugs at him with a gentle insistence.

“All will be well, Winston.” Harold says, though his eyes, filled with the golden light, seem sad.

xXx

The golden sun fades as if a cloud has passed in front of it, but there are no clouds in the sky. Ana watches the pond and notices that the fish are gone too, as if they had never been. The surface is ominously still.

“I suppose a little nap won’t hurt.” Ana says, “we are old, so naps are expected.” She smiles and leans her head against Reinhardt’s arm.

“I will keep you safe while you sleep.”

Ana closes her eyes and allows her breathing to even out. She’s so tired. She feels as if she can sleep forever.

“Ana.”

A voice says her name. It is a voice so cold that she instantly snaps, shivering violently, awake. She knows that voice, and not just because the words are spoken using the voice of her daughter.

“I know you.” She mumbled. “I know you.”

The air grew colder and colder, the golden light was smothered by a heavy, forbidding grey mist that that rose from the pond and smothered everything. The pond, she saw, was freezing over with audible snaps and crackles. Small clouds puffed from her lips as the cold snatched the air from her lungs.

Almost as if...

Something tall was approaching her from over the frozen pond. Its outline was difficult to see, but she saw that it was a solid ten feet in height and what seemed like antlers extending from a misshapen head. Each footstep cracked like thunder in a suddenly dead and silent world. She looked up at Reinhardt and saw that he had been frozen in a block of ice. Strange, now that she looked at him. Outside the glow of the golden sun, his smile looked false to her. Like a puppet that had no life of its own being manipulated to trick her into believing something beautiful.

It was so cruel, this wonderful fantasy. It was even crueler to remember that she had never told Reinhardt that she loved him. The never could have built a home and family together. They never had a chance at happiness, and Ana preferred it that way. Not for her sake, but for his. But it was still a terrible, heartbreaking moment to realize that the beautiful, warm, and peaceful golden light had been nothing but an unbearable lie.

“Do you remember who you are?” Fareeha’s voice asked, each chilling word filling their world with more and more ice, “and how you came to be here.”

Ana closed her eye and concentrated. A few blinding rays of golden light still drifted around her mind, making it difficult for her to remember anything beyond this dream.

“I remember darkness, pain, and winter.” She said, “and I remember you. It makes sense, as you are all three of those things, aren’t you?”

“You made a deal with me.” It said, “I will not let the Stormbringer, the Dream Devourer, to destroy your mind, not while you still owe me a debt.”

“Why would I make a deal with you?”

“Why indeed?”

A memory wiggled at the corner of her mind. It was faint, however.

“Wake up, Ana Amari.”

xXx

To stay here forever with Zenyatta? Bastion would have it no other way.

Will I sleep for long? He asks because Bastion has spent a long time sleeping before and doesn’t want to miss out on what the world has to offer. It is a beautiful world, after all, and Bastion wants to go out and see it. All of it. As beautiful as this moment is, Bastion weighs being here with Zenyatta against the wonders of the world out there.

“No.” Promises Zenyatta, “you will not.”

Then, he decides, he will sleep.

xXx

“There’s no pain here.” Says Fareeha, looking up from her spring rolls to give him a small smile.

“Stay here with us and you’ll never feel pain again,” says Jack with a laugh. There is a golden light in all of their eyes, and Gabriel has never felt so tired. 

“I think you deserve a lil’ rest, boss.” Says Jesse. “Everyone deserves some chance at being happy.”

xXx

Something is wrong, Winston thinks suddenly, but he can’t seem to figure out why. It has something to do with Harold Winston. A faint emptiness from his heart serves as an echo chamber for a whisper of something he needs to remember.

“A perfect moment, no matter how beautiful, cannot last forever.” Winston says, but he’s not sure why. The echoes are louder now, more ominous. The golden light is eating at the corners of his world, becoming so intense now that he was almost blinded by it. 

He looked at Harold again, at the person he loved, admired, and respected. His mentor and father-figure. Another memory bubbled to the surface, demanding to be known, to be remembered.

“Never accept the world as it appears to be. Dare to see it for what it could be.”

Why did the memory of the first time Dr. Winston showed him the world hurt so much? He remembered with absolute vividness how he felt, the bright wonder and awe, when he first saw Earth. He remembered the blue oceans and the green landmass. He remembered the clouds as they rolled across the surface. He remembered thinking how it all looked like one of his favourite marbles. Most of all, he remembered the exact moment he vowed to himself, as a small child, that he would make a difference. It didn’t matter that some people looked at him with fear and suspicion. It didn’t even matter that he was different. He would make the world a better place.

He would make his mentor proud.

The pain around his heart was building, the echo chamber was now a deafening orchestra of pain, loneliness, and sadness. In the moment of his revelation, he was both deaf and blind, and the only thing he was aware of was that he existed at all. And that existence hurt. Brief moments of happiness overshadowed by years of being alone.

“Winston.” Harold said, his voice carrying a sadness that matches his own. “Sleep is a mercy you deserve. I see your pain and loneliness and I know that the world will only dig its claws deeper into your heart until it reaches your soul. Is it worth having your soul poisoned for a world that will never thank you for it?”

He was so tired. So, so tired.

“Yes.” He said, and the golden light began to fade, leaving him and Harold Winston standing in a silvery moonlight field filled with white grass and a sky so dark it didn’t seem to exist. The stars and the moon barely looked real. “Someone needs to fight for the world, and as long as I’m here, that someone is going to be me. I will not accept this dream, as nice as it is. And if I do not accept this dream, then I have to accept the fact that you died a long time ago.” Winston said this calmly, though anguish coursed through his heart.

“You told me to get in the pod then you closed it. I watched Icarus as he killed you with his bare hands.” He sat down now, as if the weight of his memories was too much. Tears were coming, but there had always been tears. If not on the outside, then on the inside by the little gorilla who thought that the world was a beautiful place filled with wonder.

And it was, he reminded himself. There were so many things worth fighting for.

“What are you?” Winston finally asked, “More importantly, where am I? This is a fully impressive hallucination, and yet not even knowing that has made it go away. What happened? Where am I?” 

Harold only smiled his sad smile.

“You will remember when you wake up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> How did we get to this point? Where ARE our heroes right now? How the heck is Reaper involved? What deal did Ana make?
> 
> It all started with a terrible blizzard and a plane crash...


	16. Crash and Burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beep boop boop bop

“Why do we have a basketball hoop in the carrier?” Fareeha wondered out loud as she sunk her fourth straight hoop. The hoop let out a triumphant horn and then let out a burst of confetti. Times may change, but the built-in confetti system was eternal.

“If we didn’t give bored agents something to do, they might be tempted to trash the place.” Ana replied from her place next to a transformed Bastion. The two of them were playing some sort of beeping game and Ana, for some reason, had taped a stick of bells to Bastion’s barrel and the resulting jingling seemed to amuse the both of them. 

“Onetime I witnessed a bunch of hardened Overwatch agents shoot the panels off the walls and smash the air tanks.” Ana continued with a casual air of fond remembrance, “It was hilarious to watch, but it cost a fortune to replace all the panels.”

“I would have expected Overwatch agents to show more discipline and restraint.”

“Most did, but there was always that one person we never talk about...”

“Oh, I haven’t been up here in ages!” Mei gushed from the front, admiring the mountains their snow-topped peaks swept by below. “I almost forgot how pretty Canada is! I wonder if we’ll have enough time to go for a hike!”

“I’m afraid not.” Winston said, who was sitting next to the table and scrolling through his tablet with his brow furrowed. “We’re just here to inspect the base and we’ll have to leave, there are other things that need our attention after this. It shouldn’t take long at all.”

“Beep-boop-bwoo.” Bastion added and Ana nodded sagely in agreement. No one knew if Ana could actually understand Bastion, or if she was just pretending to to mess with the rest of them. Knowing Ana, a convincing argument could be made either way. 

Lena remained stubbornly silent, an uncharacteristic trait that worried everyone. Her silence seemed extra hard whenever Winston tried to speak to her, which was extra worrisome. Those two had been friends from the moment they met and their usual disagreements never lasted for longer than an hour or so.

“We should be arriving within the hour.” Winston said eventually, “Mei, come look at these readings. Strange, aren’t they? There was supposed to be mild weather in this part of the Yukon but there’s a massive, record-breaking storm brewing down below and it only started about a day or so ago.”

“Could be what we’re here for.” Mei mused, looking up at the data and adjusting her glasses. “Let me just go through these satellite images and...” She fell silent for a moment before she narrowed her eyes and pointed at the image frozen on the screen with the annoyed triumph of a parent catching their child with their hand in the cookie jar. 

“There! About two days ago this storm unfurled like all the other storms we’re here to investigate! We should definitely be careful, we have no idea what we’re facing here.” Which was the understatement of the century, even when placed along the time Jack Morrison said to Ana Amari, “I think Gabriel might be a little upset about the promotion thing.” and like Jack Morrison, Mei finished her comment with “But I bet things will turn out just fine!”

As is the way of things, the moment the words left her mouth, the carrier was buffeted by an unusually powerful guest of wind. Ana fell on Bastion and banged her elbow, Winston fell forward and smacked his face on the table, Lena hurt her hand on the control panel, Fareeha missed her basket, and Mei emerged unharmed. 

“Oi!” Came Lena’s indignant shout from the front, “that was rude!”

They descended into the clouds and nothing could be seen outside the windows but the dark grey stormclouds. Lena kept her eye on the readings and Athena drew her attention to the fact that their ship’s sensors were picking up something very strange. “That can’t be right.” Lena muttered to no one as she poked the computer a couple times as if that would change things. She was just about to call her teammates over to come look but then everything, both inside and outside the carrier, fell into an unnatural silence. A pulse, like a shockwave, thrummed through the air and something impossibly huge hit the aircraft carrier hard enough for the world to turn violently on its side. 

Outside the aircraft, the air pulsed again with the wingbeats of the abomination that cut through the black clouds that filled the valley below with snow. The black figure passed over the carrier and looked within. In a single beat of its monstrous heart, it saw everyone. Everything they were lay before him, their darkest thoughts, their most desperate fears, and, most importantly, their deepest, most needful desires. He knew what he must do, but the knowledge brought him neither joy nor anger. He, like them, simply was. 

Down he came, his talons outstretched, and he sank them deep into the hull of the ship.

xXx

Ana knew that they were in an unusual kind of trouble when a jet black spike cut into the side of the carrier and the plan jerked again with the force of it. When the spike withdrew, it tore a whole big enough that the wind and snow blasted through, knocking them all to the floor. Lena was screaming something, but Ana paid it no mind and chose instead to claw her way to her daughter, who had grabbed hold of one of the harnesses along the walls. Fareeha’s helmet was off, and the two of them made eye contact, and in that moment Ana’s only thought was that she loved her daughter very much.

Her world trembled and another black spike appeared in the hull, followed by two others. Ana watched them warily, aware in every fibre of her body that she might not survive whatever happened next. A horrible shriek of tearing metal sounded, and the back half of the carrier fell away, taking a screaming, terrified Bastion along with it. Ana watched him go with a pang of remorse, but she turned her attention back to Fareeha... only to lose her grip as the howling wind tore at her clothes and plucked her from the remaining sky wreckage. “Fareeha!” She yelled, though her words were lost as she fell into the swirling black and white of the snowstorm. 

“Mother!” Fareeha yelled through their comm channel, and a second later Ana felt a firm hand take hers and she looked up to find Fareeha’s frantic face inches from hers. “I’ve got you.” Fareeha said with such cool authority that Ana couldn’t suppress a burst of pride. Her Fareeha was so grown up, it was hard not to appreciate that as a mother being held by her flying daughter hundreds of feet off the ground after being attacked by a flying monster while within a terrible blizzard. 

In a happier story, perhaps it would have ended with that, but as Ana looked over Fareeha’s shoulder up at the retreating light of the crashing air carrier, she saw a large chunk of metal spinning dangerously in their direction. There was only enough time for to say Fareeha’s name before the metal made contact, jarring Ana out of her daughter’s arms and flinging her back into the void. The wind howled in her ear, and the cold cut at exposed flesh like razor blades. 

She fell, and, with a terrible crunch and a burst of body-wide pain, she landed.

xXx

Winston held on for as long as he could. He had grabbed Mei, who had been the closest at the time, and was using all of his strength to stop the two of them from being sucked out into the blizzard. But even then, he was all too aware that they were going to crash extremely soon, and they might not walk away from that. They needed to bail and take their chances with a painful landing.

The lights flickered off and on until they gave up entirely.

Where was Lena? Winston called out to her but he got nothing but static in return. He had to get to her and then they could leave this together. That was how it had always been done with the two of them. But not even Winston’s strength could withstand the wind for very long, and his grip was eventually torn from the craft, one by one, until he and Mei disappeared into the blizzard.

“Winston! Hang on!” Mei yelled, managing to wiggle out her gun from under Winston’s death grip. She wasn’t sure what she planned to do with it, but as the frozen river below them grew steadily closer, she knew she had to do something. A mere fifty feet above the river, Winston activated his jumpjets and the force of it slowed their descent by a considerable margin, so when they hit the ice and broke through into the river, they didn’t immediately die. 

It was _so_ cold, even for someone who spent a lot of time encased in ice, and if it was cold for her, it was absolutely deadly for Winston. Gorillas don’t handle the cold very well, Mei thought vaguely as she forced herself to react. They were being swept down the river and there was no way to get to the surface, the ice was too thick for her to break through on her own.

A wall, she thought desperately and raised her gun towards where she hoped Winston was. If she could just build a wall...

xXx

Lena was the last one left.

The burning wreckage she was still on was still somehow in the air, but that was going to change very, very soon. Through the torrent of snow she could see the outline of an approaching mountain, its black shape looming over her and her doomed aircraft. She only had a second to save her life, but luckily for her, a second for her meant a lot more than the average human being.

The moment the aircraft hit the mountainside with a terrifying boom that shook snow from its peak, Lena rewound, but not even going ten seconds back put her out of range of the impact. She managed to land on a sturdy rock, but she had no time to take a breather, as an ominous thundering of a thousand tons of snow shifted just above her. 

“Oh-” She gritted her teeth and jumped down to the next outcropping, and then the next. A rock, launched at her from the force of the avalanche, hit her squarely in the back and she found herself in free fall. As deft as ever, she twisted in the air and broke her fall by grabbing hold of a thing tree. She couldn’t rewind now, it would put her firmly right in the middle of the sliding snow. She blinked forward a few more times and looked frantically for anyplace to hide, because as good as she was, she couldn’t outrun the avalanche forever, and also she needed to stop to inspect the damage done to her chronal accelerator.

A cave flashed by and Lena immediately screeched to a stop and blinked towards it. Not a second too soon, as the snow roared past, covering the entrance with snow. It wasn’t ideal, Lena thought as she flicked on her flashlight, but it was better than being either a Lena-sized pile of cinders or a Lena-sized popsicle. 

“Phew, that was a close one.” Lena said brightly to no one in particular. Her chipper attitude carefully hid her pounding heart and slightly shaky hands. She was alive, but she was also stranded alone under a mountain and she currently had no idea what happened to the rest of her friends. She thought about Winston and her heart squeezed painfully with guilt and worry. Suddenly, her anger at him for the whole Shambali thing seemed pointless and petty. What if their last interaction was nothing but a chilly silence?

“Stop that.” She said and reached up to touch her earpiece, which was somehow miraculously still existed. “They’re not gone yet.”

“Hello? This is Tracer! Everyone check in!”

Lena counted the seconds. One... two... ten... thirteen... fifteen...

“Boop boop!”

She let out a shuddering sigh of relief. Bastion, at least, was okay. Of course he was, he was a tough transforming killing machine. 

“Bastion! I’m so glad you’re okay luv! Is anyone else with you?”

“Bwee...”

“Oh, right.” She paced back and forth as she tried to figure things out. “You know where we’re going, right? Head there and I’ll meet you there. Pick up anyone you find along the way, okay?”

“Bwoo!”

One down. Where were the other four? Why hadn’t Winston tried to make contact first? Lena tried not to think about what that could mean as she tried to contact Athena.

“Athena! Athena, are you there?”

“I read you, Agent Tracer.”

“Can you get readings on everyone? We’re scattered and it’s super cold out here.”

“All agents are alive, though some are experience various levels of physical trauma and Winston is currently suffering from severe hypothermia.”

Gorillas aren’t meant to be in the cold, Lena thought numbly, but they were all alive. For now, anyway.

“Where is he? I have to go find him!”

It’s possible that Athena told her, but Lena never heard it. The sound of something shifting aside the snow outside the entrance of her cave caught her attention and she instantly had her pistols at the ready. Though what she planned to do with them if it turned out to be the thing that crashed them to begin with, she didn’t really know. 

The snow shifted aside, and...

A golden light filled the cave. It was beautiful, and Lena gazed into it, mesmerized. Her pistols fell away and she didn’t move as black tendrils extended from the golden glow and reached for her. She didn’t react when they wrapped around her and gently, oh so gently, picked her up and pulled her away. Even as she went, she wondered if she should be feeling some sort of fear. She needed to find... find someone. Do something. 

Oh, but she was so, so tired. 

Before the golden eyes of a god, she fell easily into sleep. If she had stayed awake just a little bit longer, she would have seen the massive beak before it closed around her and swallowed her whole.


	17. I'm Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A deal rejected and then a deal made.
> 
> What is Its name?
> 
> Well, time to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Mentions of cannibalism and implied parasite things

Mei loved the cold. There was something especially exciting about being in it for her in particular. Her fondest memories were when she was young and she played in the snow with her mother, father, and uncle. She remembered making a snowman and her mother playfully waiting for Mei’s father to finish making his so she could knock it over himself, which resulted in a play argument and a dramatic snowbank wrestle. 

The two seconds that Mei could immerse herself in that memory were bliss. After that, the world rudely rushed in and her nice memory vanished beneath the muffled churning of water and the distant echoes of ice grinding against ice. Her gloved hand was still clutching Winston’s fur. He felt stiff against her and she fought down a burst of panic. She needed to keep a cool head if she was going to save Winston.

“Cool head.” Tee hee.

The cold of the water seeped into her flesh and bones, but she still forced herself to raise her free arm, her gun still clutched in her hand despite the dramatic fall from the aircraft. 

I’ve got you, she thought, and then raised the wall.

The riverbed, as it turned out, was just close enough to the surface that her wall broke through the ice at the top and the two of them smacked into it with a bone-jarring thud. Her wall would only stay like this for so long, with the river pushing up against it, so she reacted instantly. She clawed herself to the surface and erupted out of the water with a desperate gasp.

“Winston!” She cried, her voice pitifully weak before the howling of the wind. She tugged at him, hoping he’d have some strength left over from the crash, and nearly wept when his face came to the surface. His eyes flickered open weakly and he breathed out great puffs of air. He didn’t need her to tell him to climb up on out, though at first they couldn’t make any progress at all, as the ice wasn’t strong enough to hold up a girl and a gorilla. 

“C’mon, just a little further Winston.” She begged him, giving him another tug as he slide dejectedly back into the water. He was worryingly quiet, and Mei couldn’t hold back a few traitorous tears at the terrifying idea that he might freeze to death here and she wouldn’t be able to stop it. She was a very small woman and he was a pretty average-sized gorilla. There would be nothing she could do if he stopped moving altogether. 

“You need to keep going. We’ll find someplace warm, I promise.” At least she hoped so. She had sent Snowball out to find a cabin or cave for them, but he hadn’t returned yet.

After another failed attempt to get out of the water, Mei was struck with a brilliant idea. 

“Brace yourself!” She said from her own perch a short distance away. She raised her gun and...

 _Whoosh_.

Another wall erected itself below Winston, effectively hoisting him right out of the water. If only she had thought about that thirty seconds before! But no matter, she was on a roll now and she instructed Winston to walk to the edge so she could build another wall for him to climb on. Before long, the two of them were standing at what Mei hoped was the shore. One danger passed, but they still had a few problems. Their most immediate was definitely Winston’s impending hypothermia. Mei decided to worry about the crash when Winston wasn’t in danger anymore. 

“Let’s keep going.” She told him, and guided him towards the trees. They couldn’t just sit here like a little and big snowman, they had to keep moving. “Hang in there Winston, it’s going to be okay.”

“Yeah... I know.” Winston managed to say, his voice distressingly weak. “I’ll stay here for as long as I can.”

Her spirits rose a few seconds later when a familiar whirring caught her attention, and her beloved little drone zipped excitedly up to her.

“Snowball! Did you find anything?”

He must have, because he gave a few affirmative beeps and zipped back off, prompting Mei to tug Winston’s arm to get him to follow her.

“He’s found some shelter for us.” Mei explained to Winston, who only give her a very tired nod. The two of them made their slow, laborious way after the little robot. Away from the river they went, and towards a rocky outcropping they could just barely see through the swirling snow. 

“Mei...” Winston sounded just moments away from collapsing. 

Worried, Mei instantly started patting him frantically on his arm. 

“We’re almost there! Just a few more steps Winston and then we can rest! I promise!” She pushed at him and he staggered forwards a few more steps. Then they stopped suddenly, both of them stiffening as a feeling of deep unease came over them. It was as if someone had dumped ice water into her brain, leaving her reeling and slightly confused. She kept both hands on Winston, as if she could somehow protect her enormous gorilla friend from harm.

Something out there moved just out of sight, the dark outline of the trees rustled ever-so-slightly as they were pushed out of the way of a creature who had no business being here. The rustling stopped and an unnatural silence fell over them, as even the wind felt like it was holding its breath. 

It wasn’t gone, whatever it was. They were being watched. Mei felt its terrible gaze on her, examining her, judging her worth. Her breath came out in short, terrified bursts and her heart was beating so loudly that she was sure that the creature could hear it. It could hear her heartbeat. It knew exactly where they were. 

“We have to move.” She choked out and gave Winston another push. Stubbornly, however, he remained where he was; standing firmly on all fours, his ice-riddled fur standing on end. He glared out at what Mei couldn’t see, his nostrils flaring, smelling what Mei couldn’t smell.

And suddenly, with no warning, he reared up on his back legs and roared while pounding his chest. Startled, Mei fell backwards and looked up in awe at her friend, and it only occurred to her right then how scary Winston was when he was angry. She had never really thought about it before, because the idea that her mild-mannered and brilliant friend was scary was kind of silly. Then again, she had never been on the receiving end of his primal rage. 

The deep, challenging roar carried dramatically over the forest and the feeling of dread momentarily vanished. Mei allowed herself a sigh of relief, mistakenly hoping that Winston had been scary enough to drive that thing off.

“We need to get mo-” She started to say, only to be cut off by a high banshee wail that echoed from the woods. The screech was like nails over a chalkboard, the sharp points digging into her brain and scratching at the insides of her skull. She screamed and tugged at Winston and yelled something incoherent and desperate at him. It was coming. She could hear its approaching footsteps as it ran towards them in answer to Winston’s challenge.

Mei nearly cried when Winston finally turned and started running. Another howl sounded behind them, and it was only a matter of time. If it caught them, there would be nothing left, not even bones...

“There!” She shouted and pointed out the small drone who was hovering just outside a cave opening. They dived into the cave, Mei swiping Snowball out of the air as they went, and she was quick to erect a wall right behind her. There was a loud CRASH a second later as a massive _thing_ hit the side of her wall. It groaned and hissed, and they heard long claws scratching against the ice. 

Seconds turned into minutes as they waited breathlessly for it to stop attacking her wall.

“Snowball, initiate heater mode.” Mei whispered. They weren’t going anywhere anytime soon, and they needed some warmth. Thank goodness for Snowball or else she would have had to leave the cave to build a fire, and that simply wasn’t possible. 

“What was that?” She asked finally, taking off her jacket when it got warm enough inside. Somewhat fruitlessly, she tried to use it to rub the icicles off Winston’s fur. Snowball had a light function too, which gave their cave an almost homey glow. If it hadn’t been for the fallen silence outside, she would have relaxed a little bit. 

The gorilla was still tense, and his eyes never left the cave entrance.

“It smelled wrong.” He said finally. He looked at her grimly. “Like all the wrong things in the world put together. It wasn’t just an organic being either, I smell... metal. Burning metal and wires. It’s hard to explain.”

“I believe you.” Mei said softly, still chasing ice off his fur. 

“There’s no way something like this was created naturally.” Winston mused, his fur flattening as he relaxed a little bit. “Also I don’t think this thing is what took down our carrier, which means that there are more of them, but how many? Who made them? Why? What purpose does some techno-organic monster have? And that’s assuming that’s what it is. If only I had a way to examine it, then I’d know for sure.”

Well, it was nice that Winston was getting his spirit back. Mei allowed him to continue his line of thought while she continued her work. 

“It’s frustrating that the only information I have right now is speculation, but I’ll have to worry about that some other day. Athena, can you hear me?”

Mei paused and reached to tap her own earpiece, only to find it missing. That’s hardly surprising considering the fall they had.

“Yes? Hmm. That’s concerning. Yes. No. I’m fine. There’s a development I want to talk to the team. Mhmm. Yes. Good. Understood, contact me when you have her location.”

“Is everyone okay?” Mei asked when he finished. 

“As well as we all can be considering we all fell out of the sky.” Winston replied heavily. “Athena said that the Captain is injured, Pharah is unconscious about a two miles from here, Bastion is okay, and Lena’s signal vanished, though Athena doesn’t believe... well.”

“Oh dear, this mission is falling apart and we haven’t even gotten there yet.” She fretted, “but that’s an issue in itself, right? I mean, why would anyone try to stop us from reaching that base?”

“And what did they even stop us _with_?”

“I don’t like this, but we’re too far in to quit now.” And Mei wasn’t the type of person to just leave it be. They couldn’t forget the reason they came here in the first place. “Did you say that Fareeha was unconscious? That’s really dangerous in this cold! We need to do something.”

“I agree, but she appears to be moving at a fairly steady pace despite that. I think someone might have her and Athena says she isn’t suffering from the cold.”

“Maybe someone found her? Decided to help her?”

“I hope she was that lucky.”

Luckier than them, anyway.

They couldn’t go anywhere now. Winston was exhausted and Mei wasn’t about to go out there to face that beast alone. Winston drifted off eventually, and Mei took it upon herself to watch the cave opening. The wall still held firm, but there was no sound coming from the other side. Again, she allowed herself a moment to hope that maybe it had gotten bored and wandered off. 

The night stretched silently on, a black void dotted with white flecks of snow. The wind howled mournfully through the thin evergreens and around the impassive mountains. The only sound inside were Winston’s gruff snores and Snowball’s soft whirrs. It should have been almost cozy, but Mei couldn’t fully relax. She listened carefully beyond the wind and other sounds, straining to detect the light scraping of claws against her wall.

“Hunters need to eat too.” Mei’s uncle once told her in a gentle voice during one of their outings. They had come across a wolf eating a deer and Mei had burst into tears. Mei’s uncle had held her, but hadn’t taken her away from the sight.

“This is perfectly natural. The hunter deserves to live just much as the deer. Don’t be sad, that’s how things are. There’s beauty in this too once you understand.”

Mei couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to starve to death, and had agreed that the wolf deserved to eat too, even if the sight of the dead deer still upset her.

A sound caught her attention. A real sound this time, not of her imagination.

_Tap tap tap_

“Who’s... who’s there?” Mei asked, her voice trembled despite her efforts to seem cool and calm. 

“I am here.”

The voice sent a jolt of pure horror and confusion coursing through her body. It wasn’t that there was an inhuman chill of the voice that frightened it, nor was it the undertone of something speaking a language she didn’t understand. No, it was that the voice speaking was her own.

_Tap tap tap_

_Scratch scratch scratch_

“Let me have him.” The not!Mei whispered. The real Mei shuddered and covered her ears. That wasn’t enough to block the monster out, however. “I am so hungry. I need to feed.”

“You can’t have him.” She said firmly through numb lips.

“Blood and bone and flesh.” The creature said. “Waste none of it. Drink the blood, chew the bone, and devour the flesh. Give him tome and he will not go to waste.”

“He’s _not_ dying!” Mei snapped, her heart beating faster. Winston was okay! He was warm now and his injuries tended to. He was okay, and this voice was trying to get her to believe a lie. “Go away and leave us alone!”

Me watched the tiny crack between the wall and the cave, the crack she left to give them some air. It was only three inches, but it felt terrifyingly wide open.

“The Stormbringer is coming for you. Give him to me and I can save you. Not him. Oh no, he will die.”

Silence fell again. On and on it went until Mei hoped, once again, that maybe it left. She hummed nervously to herself, a tune from her childhood that her uncle used to hum to her to scare away the monsters. 

Monster, monster go away...

Mei’s uncle used to sing to her as he sat on her bed and reassuringly patted the trembling lump underneath her covers.

“Don’t be afraid Mei, no monster will hurt you as long as you remember this song.”

“Do you promise?” Asked the small five-year-old as she peeped out from under her covers.

Her uncle had been a kind man who had given Mei her love of the great outdoors. He taught her how to hike and survive in the wild, and, more importantly, he taught her to respect and admire the natural world. It was because of him that Mei decided that the world was worth giving everything she had to save it.

“I promise.” He said, his voice warm, and Mei relaxed. Deciding that it was safe enough, she brought out her polar bear teddy to sit with them. They sat quietly together for a moment while Mei admired the cityscape outside her window. Eventually, her uncle spoke again.

“Why are you so afraid of monsters? How can you be so sure that they want to hurt you?”

Mei blinked, surprised by this adult foolishness.

“Because it’s a monster. That’s what monsters do.”

“Sometimes a monster isn’t a monster.” Her uncle explained, “sometimes a monster is just something your fear turns a harmless thing into. Look closel at what you’re afraid of and maybe it’s not as scary as you think it is.”

Later, after he left, Mei got out from under her covers and bravely looked under her bed. 

“ _Sometimes a monster truly is just a monster._ ”

Mei let out a squeak when her voice piped up from the other side of the wall. Mei raised her eyes to the crack between her wall and the cave and felt her heart freeze. A massive, pale white eye gazed back at her. It was an eye that was too large to fit on any human, yet held too much malice and intelligence to belong to any animal. 

She stared into the eye and

A body lay before her.

Fear. Death. Hunger.

Trapped. Alone. He had no choice.

Mama, it’s cold outside.

They’re coming for us.

Mama. 

I’m so hungry.

Mei blinked and found herself with her face mere inches from the wall. The dead gaze of the monster still watched her and she fought down a sudden urge to vomit. 

“You _are_ a monster.” She rasped, throwing herself backwards and scrambling as far away as she could go. “You’re ugly both inside and out!”

The other Mei laughed, its mirth cut into her brain like jagged shards of ice. 

“ _You have no idea._ ”

The eye disappeared, and the scratched resumed. At this point, Mei got the feeling that the monster could have knocked down her wall by now if it really wanted to. It was playing with her, but she couldn’t understand why.

“What do you _want_ ” Mei demanded, her anger slowly evaporating her fear. She was tired of this.

“ _Freedom. Can you give me that, Creature of Ice?” It replied, “Alas you cannot, but _I_ can give you freedom. The Stormbringer comes for you, and you will not survive. Help me, and I will help you. You wish to save the world, yes? To show others that this is one worth saving?_

 _Can you do that if you are dead?_ ”

“I’m not giving you Winston!” The words it said frightened her, but her resolve on this one thing allowed her to speak. She would absolutely not let it lay a single claw on Winston. Not if she was here to stop it.

“ _Then die._ ”

_CRACK_

Her wall was hit with enough force to bring a section of it down. Mei shrieked and scrambled over to Winston, who had had awakened with a snarl.

_CRACK_

Again her wall was assaulted, and she watched with dismay as he entire thing crumbled down. The wind entered the cave with a dramatic whoosh, bring in a flurry of snow along with it. 

_THUD_

Wingbeats, Mei instantly thought. Wingbeats from a massive bird. An eagle, maybe?

Closer. Closer it came, the air throbbed as something heavy landed in front of their cave. A light flooded inside, and Mei found it hard to think. Hard to move. There were no thoughts anymore, just the wonderful, beautiful golden light. 

They were going to be warm soon. They were going to be safe. 

And then Snowball barrelled directly into her face, blocking the light from her eyes, and Mei was herself again. Terrified, she snapped back to reality and dove for her gun. She stood, raised, it, and stopped when she saw Winston and the enormous creature that had him wrapped in many thin, string-like tentacles. 

She screamed and fired, hoping beyond hope...

xXx

Ana was never really a fan of nature. Whether it was the vast desert, a deep rainforest, or the cold, unforgiving winter of the north, Ana could never really bring herself to connect to the natural world. For the most part it was fine. Ana spent quite a bit of time in city, no matter how hellish urban warfare was and was there she preferred to be. There was a predictable pattern to people, one that she had memorized in her heart and soul. Very little of what happened in cities surprised her anymore.

Nature though, she was a cruel one. She did not care who lived and died in her embrace. She simply existed and that was enough to make Ana respect and avoid her.

The echo of the plane crash still resonated across the mountains, the wind carrying the last of the screeching boom through the drooping, forbidding evergreens. Ana grimaced and gently touched the gaping wound in her shoulder. Being speared by a branch after falling from who knows how high was definitely not her favourite way to land, but it did beat outright dying, though not by much.

“Bweep-beep?

Ana smiled and patted Bastion’s arm the best she could without wincing. She was lucky that they had, more-or-less, fallen in the same general area. She wouldn’t have been able to unspear herself otherwise. Bless him for being around when he had and for standing against the wind so she could tend to her wound with her own gear. She, at least, would stop losing blood, but the pain could only be dulled so much. 

“It’s going to be alright.” She said reassuringly, “I doubt a plan e crash would be enough to take any of them out.”

He beeped doubtfully a couple times and she agreed; The plane crash itself wasn’t their main concern. When life hands you a situation where your own transport being violently ripped in half mid-air wasn’t what you had to worry about, then you just had to accept that things were hellbound to become much, much worse. 

And that was Ana being optimistic. 

“Can you contact the others?” She asked, knowing without checking that her earpiece leapt for freedom about the same time she and Bastion were flung from the aircraft. Thankfully quite a bit more effort would be needed to separate the walking gun from his communications systems. 

“Bwoo.” Well, that was a relief. Imagine being stranded somewhere being completely unable to call for help. That’d be an absolute nightmare. 

“Hmph, we cannot afford to go stomping around this forest looking for them.” That and Ana doubted she had the stamina to withstand the physical exertion and the deep, biting cold. She did have a sizable hole in her shoulder and she was also old.

They all knew here their destination was. It made sense that they’d all meet up there.

The walk was difficult, even with Bastion’s bulk cutting an easy path for her to follow. Icy patches hid treacherously beneath loosely packed snow, brittle branches clawed at her clothes, and the wind that blew at the was so cold that each breath made each breath terribly painful. The spirits of nature were not feeling particularly generous today, thought Ana as she tripped a second time on a hidden branch. 

To say that the woods unnerved her would have been an understatement. It was only during moments as quiet as these, moments were all you hear are the wind and the loud crunch of your footsteps, impossibly loud in the night, that you feel just how old a forest is. The trees, ancient in ways humans can only imagine, the mountains here since the first gods walked the planet, and the river the flowed however much and wherever it wished to. The world was ancient, and human beings were nothing to it.

The ancient trees loomed over them as they passed, their empty branches reaching for and scraping against the darkened sky. The storm from earlier was slowly passing, leaving only thick snowflakes to drift lazily around them. 

“ _Mother!_ ” A voice called suddenly, shattering the uneasy quiet of the forest. Ana gasped, the voice more familiar to her than even her own heartbeat.

“Fareeha!” She called back once, before silencing herself with a minor scolding. Ana knew better and her daughter did too. Still, it was a relief to hear her voice. Not that Ana had any doubts, but it was nice to know that her only daughter was okay. 

“ _Mother._ ” The voice said again, quieter tis time, but closer too. Ana suddenly felt a terrible chill go up her back a chill that had nothing to do with the subarctic temperatures. Her intuition was telling her now that she and Bastion were in danger, but she couldn’t immediately tell how or why. She tensed, tightening her grip on her rifle, holding it up but also unsure which direction she should be pointing it. Sound could be extremely misleading up in the windy mountains. 

Footsteps. There was only one set, but they sounded as though there were approaching from every direction. The feet that made those noises were not Fareeha’s, as they were much too big and too heavy. Heartbeat picking up slightly, she tapped Bastion on the arm to let him know to get ready and then ran her flashlight across the treeline. It did no good; the sinister darkness of the woods stubbornly remained where it was in the spaces between the trees.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

The footsteps were accompanied by the sounds of branches snapping as entire trees were forcibly bent out of the way of some unnaturally huge creature. It would be here soon. A tree rustled to her left, and then another one to her right. They were being circled. Either because their hunter wanted to judge whether it was worth hunting down this prey, or whether it wanted to see how fun a plaything they would be.

Ana wasn’t terribly happy with either. 

A feeling swept over here. The ghost of a memory of a deep, desperate starvation trailed its claws gently over her mind and it was terrifyingly familiar in a way she couldn’t explain. She was in a cave of her own making, decorated to comfort herself, and she watched what used to be a healthy young woman become something else. She crooned at her, her voice deep and gentle in a disturbing parody of a mother’s love as she guided her new child towards her food.

 _Eat._ She said, showing her creation how to properly cut and devour her meal.

The gift she had given her had taken seed nicely. It would grow and grow until this girl, once human, would know only know the desperate agony of an eternal starvation. To live each day feeling as it might be the last because she was _so hungry_. That starvation was life itself, for it meant that as long as they were still hungry, they were still alive. It was only when there was no more hunger that death would come. She was here to guide them, to protect them. They were her children.

The poor child was crying as the life from her former companion wept from the wounds she had inflicted on him. Chunks of flesh, so ground up now that one couldn’t tell that they used to be organs, flecked her face and dribbled from her lips to stain the ground around her. Bits of malformed bone were pushing through the flesh of her hands. Soon her flesh would start to shrink as the gift her creator had given her sucked the life out of her, and soon she would be a hair above death and a notch below life. But she would be beautiful. Oh but she would not be like the monsters the Great Mother created, oh no. She would remember.

The child was trembling from the cold, and her creator would protect her from that. Ah, if only he could stop the cold, if only. No, the ice was a part of his heart, it was a part of his bones and flesh. It became his reality that one terrible day when his world was ripped apart. 

He could not escape his fate, his mother had seen that the moment the storm rolled in. 

She stood before a building with a torch in his hands. The screams of the woman they had trapped there sounded as they scratched and kicked at the doors. They will burn. Forgive me, she thought as she raised her torch to throw it, the light of the fire glinted off her chrome plating. 

She. He. They. Were an abomination made in the image of a death through starvation and a death through exposure to the relentless cold. 

They were

“ _Mother, I am here._ ”

Fareeha’s voice broke through Ana’s thoughts and Ana abruptly returned to her body, reeling and toppling over into the snow. Reality rushed back and she scrambled back to her feet, her heart pounding and her head aching with memories that hadn’t been her own. She blinked only once to get the frost out of her eyes, only to find that she couldn’t open her eye any more. An alarmed beeping from Bastion said that he was similarly blinded. It was though her eyes had been frozen shut. 

The footsteps were close now. Claws scratched against the bark of the thin trees, but what was worst was the small. To say that the icy breath across her face stank of death would not have done it justice. It stank of flesh, of decay, rot, desperation, maggots old blood, fear, and sorrow. One might wonder how fear and sorrow and desperation could have its own smell, bu Ana had been to war before. She knew.

“ _I am so glad I found you mother. I was so alone._ ” Fareeha said from somewhere high above. Beneath the mockery that was her daughter’s voice, Ana caught the grating groan of something speaking a language she didn’t understand. 

“What are you?” She asked through lips so could that they threatened to freeze shut too.

A cold laugh, and the feeling of a claw against her chin. 

“ _You know my name. You have seen it for yourself._ ”

This monster’s name was

“ _You are different from the others who are lost and alone in these mountains of ours._ ” Fareeha’s voice continued. “ _You understand._ ”

Ana didn’t understand.

There was silence as the creature turned her head this way and that, carefully inspecting her for something only it could see. Only a few pitiful beeps to her right told her that Bastion was around too, though he made no move to interfere. He probably couldn’t.

“ _Make me a promise, Ana Amari._ ” The familiarity of Fareeha’s voice dripped away until all that was left was words formed from icy wind. “ _Promise me that one day you will help me escape, and in return I will help you. You will need my help in the times to come._ ”

Despite the cold, Ana managed an answer. “What do you... need to escape from?”

They laughed, “ _Everything. Them, most importantly. You do not understand now, but you will. I am but a small price to pay for the survival of yourself and everything you love._ ”

Before Ana could answer, before she could even bring herself to think about it, a piercing shriek echoed through the mountains. It was a bird call sounded from a monstrously deformed voice box and it sent a shiver of fear through her stomach. 

“ _The Stormbringer comes, and he will bring you to his nest. You will suffer through love and happiness, not knowing what is being taken from you. I have seen into your soul, Ana Amari, and I know that though you court with death, you are never married to it. You will never accept it into yourself. If you wish to survive, then accept my deal._

 _Say my name and we will be bound together._ ”

To be bound together with this thing was a thought almost as horrifying as being eaten by some monster bird. But they had been right in saying that Ana had didn’t want to die, especially not when she didn’t know if her daughter was safe or not. Whatever comes from this, whatever happens, she had to take the risk.

Wind buffeted at her and the trees around them as the massive beast hovered over them. The cold presence of the first monster had withdrawn, but Ana knew that it could still hear her. She could move properly now, though she couldn’t open her eye, and she grabbed Bastion’s arm and yelled at him to run. It had been a good, if pointlessly desperate, effort, and they had only gone two steps before something long and thing wrapped itself around her arm. She gritted her teeth and slammed her fist into it, to no avail is it hoisted her easily into the air. 

It was time to make her decision.

“Wendigo!” She shouted, moments before a beak closed over her. “I accept your deal!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Wendigo was the very first monster I thought up when I was planning this story. Initially I planned on it being the only one, but then decided that there should be more for the sake of variety. If you thought the parasite horror was done with because we left the Great Mother behind, then I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there will be more to come.
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> Fareeha wakes up to find some unexpected allies, and takes it upon herself to rescue her mother and her friends from the flying horror. Her journey to the mountain is full of danger, as the Wendigo does not lurk in these woods by itself, nor is the Stormbringer without minions of his own.
> 
> There is no turning back for any of them.


	18. Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's never good to face a horror on your own. It's best to have allies for things like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings for this chapter!

From the very first moment Fareeha could remember her own thoughts, she knew that her mother was a hero. It was one of the most irrefutable facts of her existence. She saw the posters of her mother standing proudly and nobly next to the other members of Overwatch and she remembered those gatherings where a crowd would chant their names.

_A-mar-i_

_A-mar-i_

From the moment Fareeha was old enough to plan for her future, she had wanted to live in the same glorious and heroic world her mother lived in. It was a world full of heroes and justice, strength and valore. It was a world, young Fareeha thought, that she belonged in too. She was strong, brave, and clever, so why shouldn’t she be a hero too?

_A-mar-i_

_A-mar-i_

Life, as it turned out, was a bit more complicated than that. Her mother told her time and time again that this was not the life she wanted for Fareeha, and Fareeha was too young to see the haunted sadness that lurked behind her mother’s steel gaze. It felt as if her mother was holding her back, keeping her from her greatest dream.

The day Ana Amari died was the worst day in Fareeha’s life. While they had not talked much beforehand, it was then, as Fareeha stood silently at her mother’s funeral, that she realized how much she loved her. As the days and weeks and months wore on, Fareeha’s regret and sadness only grew. 

“I’m sorry mother.” She’d say quietly to herself before she went to bed some nights. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was sorry for. Everything. Maybe nothing. 

The day that Ana Amari came back to life, however, was also the worst day of Fareeha’s life because she was left with the feeling that she had been abandoned. All she could do, as she watched her perfectly alive mother chat with someone else on the other side of the room, was think about the crushing sadness in her father’s eyes as they held one-another the Christmas after her mother’s “death”.

Did her mother care?

But Fareeha could forgive her, perhaps, because she still loved her.

And she was not about to lose her mother again. Not now. Not ever.

It was the cold biting against her exposed skin that woke her. Slowly, she became aware of the smooth _shhhh_ sound of her transportation sliding across the snow and the panting of many animals as they pulled her to destinations unknown. 

Meanwhile, two voices, one human and one obviously omnic, were having a very lively argument.

“We’ve been over this a thousand times.” The human voice said loudly, “I’m the big brother because I was born first!”

“Nonsense.” Barked the omnic, “I didn’t even have a childhood and I took care of your tiny infant body. So that makes _me_ the big brother.’

“Excuse you, it’s age that determines who is the big brother and since I’m a month older, that means I’m older and I’m the big brother. That should be the end of this conversation.”

“That’s going by human rules.”

“You’re a part of a human family!”

“I changed your diaper!”

“So did every single person in town. You’re not special.”

“I meant-”

“Shh oh hey she’s awake!”

The jig was up. Fareeha groaned and cracked open an eye. It was daylight now and the world was agonizingly blindingly white.

“Can you hear us? Groan twice for yes.”

Fareeha tried to say something along the lines of “Yes I am perfectly okay, thank you” but could only muster a groan or two.

“That’s the spirit! If we keep at this pace she’ll start talking by tomorrow!”

“How about not being such an asshole eh?”

“Impossible! I’m an omnic, I don’t even have one.”

“That’s because your asshole is in your personality.’

The sled she was on slowed and came to a stop and Fareeha forced herself up only to wince at the pain in her everything. Nothing was broken, her armour must have protected her from the worst of it, but she still felt like she had been strung up by her toes and then used as a punching bag for professional wrestlers. 

“That’s a bit ambitious of you.’ The human, his features covered by a grey parka, ski goggles, and a mask. He was the one driving the sled she was on.

“You seem in pretty good shape for someone who fell out of the sky during a storm.” The omnic was another sled and was dressed in exactly the same way.

“I...” and it hit her. The plane. The crash. Her mother flying from her grip as she tried so hard to hang on...

Fareeha’s first instinct was to act, and she threw off the blanket and jumped off the sled.

Only to sink into the snow up to her waist.

“Looks like our new friend just had a-”

“Please don’t.” Groaned the human, but to no avail as the omnic brother continued on without mercy.

“A sinking feeling.”

He then started snickering at his own joke.

“Look at her being _snowed down_.”

“Oh god.”

“All this snow is stopping her cold!”

“And you just ruined any chance of her thinking that we might be cool.”

“Eyyyy.”

“Fuck off.”

Despite herself, Fareeha let out a snort of laughter. 

“Thank you so much for not letting me freeze to death.” She said with a good-natured smile, still hip-deep in snow. “I appreciate it a lot. But I need to find my companions. There were five others on the plane with me when it fell. I do not believe that a single one of them would have perished because of the fall nor the cold.”

“If you’re asking for help, we’d be happy to help you. First we want to take you to our rez and get you fixed up. We would have done it here, but our granny always taught us that it is impolite to remove a lady’s body armour without her permission.”

“Though if we thought you were seriously injured then we absolutely would have.” The omnic added, “Chivalry is only halfway dead up here.”

“Also you might think that we’re joking, but you haven’t met our granny.”

“We also want you to know that it was a real bitch getting you into the sled to begin with. We had to dig you out of a snow ditch and fend off a couple curious moose. You don’t fuck with moose man. They’ll fuck you up.”

“I’m... sorry?” She said slowly. The two of them stepped off their sleds onto the snow. The did not sink like she expected them to, instead they stood on top of it as if the snow was as solid as stone. This was especially surprising for an omnic.

“Pretty surprising for an omnic eh?” The omnic said brightly as they got on either side of her and grabbed an arm. 

“It is an ancient Tlingit technique passed down from my ancestors.” They plucked her out and put her back on the sled –pulled by omnic dogs, she noticed-- and the driver of the sled pulled back his hood. He was a brown-skinned man with a round face, high-cheekbones, the kind of face whose dark eyes would disappear when he smiled. He was handsome enough, but what caught Fareeha’s attention most was when he revealed the most gloriously thick and sleek hair she had ever seen. Any normal mortal’s hair would have at least been a little bit ruffled after being under a hood for a period of time, and Fareeha, whose hair was badly tangled and frizzy, was humbled.

“Legend says,” piped up the omnic, who had taken his own hood and mask off to reveal a yellow face and seven green dots that made up an omnic’s distinct appearance. His hand, she noticed, was painted red, “If you stare into his hair long enough, you can see the future.”

“If I look hard enough, do you think I will find an introduction somewhere in our future?” Fareeha asked, quickly adopting their glib tone.

“Only if you see a dinner and maybe a move in there too.” Said the omnic, winking his lights suggestively.

Fareeha snorted, but ultimately decided to let him down easy. “Maybe, but you would need to fight my girlfriend for that privilege. I warn you; she’s fierce.”

“Well, I supposed it was too much to hope that I would earn the love of a piece of flaming wreckage from the sky, but alas I will have to wait and see if I’ll be luckier on the next one.” He sighed dramatically and walked over to his sled, which, Fareeha noted, was tethered to a dozen of ordinary organic dogs.

“My name’s Peter.” The human finally said, being finished with his ten-second-long gigglefit at the expense of his brother. “That walking trashcan over there is Jacob. We’re Peter and Jacob Jewel at your service.”

“We’re Jewels because we’re precious.” Jacob called over from his sled. “Our granny says so all the time.”

“We mostly use our sleds for tourism things. Well, Jacob uses his for tourism. Me and my dogs? We’re racers. Two time winners here.”

“Congrats.” Fareeha said, deeply amused and distracted despite how dire her situation was. “I am called Pharah and I originally come from Egypt.”

“Ooh Egypt? That’s quite a ways away from the frozen north. What brings you up here?” Peter asked as he ushered the dogs forward.

“I cannot say, I’m sorry.”

“Sounds important.” Jacob turned on his own sled and looked at her carefully. 

“Say, has anyone ever told you you look just like Ana Amari? From the Overwatch days?”

Fareeha inwardly winced.

“I’ve been told, yes.”

“Oh my god our granny is like the biggest fan of hers. She collected all the merch humanly possible. Posters, videos, figurines, if it was made then my granny bought it.” Jacob continued, “She cried and went into this huge depression when Captain Amari died. Like she was inconsolable. She’s a little over it now, but wow. Ana Amari’s number one fan there.”

This was a little uncomfortable, and Fareeha only responded with a noncommittal “mhm” and the omnic continued his chatter, which veered wildly into hunting season. At that point his brother started pitching in and they got into an argument about jerky that Fareeha wasn’t able to follow.

While they were doing that, Fareeha took the time to check her comms. Somewhat predictably, no one was on them and Athena informed her that no one has been on them in a while.

“Their tracking signal is unknown.” Athena had said.

“Say.” Said Peter casually after a brief pause in his argument with Jacob, “You speak all military-like and you’re using a codename. You wouldn’t be up here because of all the missing people lately, would you?”

“Missing people?”

“Yeah, over the past few months anyone who goes into these mountains never come back out.” The glib from earlier began to fade as the two brothers shared a grave glance with one another. “We’ve begged anyone who would listen to help us, but the few searches that happened didn’t turn up anything. Dozens, no, maybe even hundreds, of people up here have gone missing, and they just think that we’re a bunch of drunks who are getting ourselves killed.”

“An old stereotype that isn’t even remotely true.” Jacob said, sounding genuinely annoyed, “that issue got dealt with over thirty years ago. But no, everyone has an idea of what we are and a lot of people won’t change their minds.”

“Those who come back say that there are monsters in the mountains.”

“So why are you two out here?” She asked, her concern growing by the second.

They looked at each other before Peter answered her. “Our niece went missing a few days ago and we need to find her. She wasn’t even in the woods when she disappeared. She was in our backyard, playing with her dolls. We heard her scream and then... she was gone.”

“Our mom begged us not to go.” Jacob continued, “but we promised to find her, and here we are.”

They fell silent. In her heart, Fareeha knew that she needed to help them. There was no debate with herself over that.

“We can help each other.” Fareeha said with a decisive nod, “can you fight?”

“Can we fight?” Jacob scoffed. “We wouldn’t be out here if we weren’t just a little bit capable of taking care of ourselves.”

“My dogs can take down anything that comes at us.” Peter said proudly, making a grand sweeping gesture towards his omnic pets. “Also I have an old combat shotgun granny gave me as a gift last year. Jacob here has a rifle, another gift from granny, and I’ve never seen him miss a shot. He also has a bone knife for anything that needs a shanking.”

“So why the...?” She gestured vaguely towards the organic dogs.

“Whatever’s out here doesn’t like dogs. Everytime one of them starts howling, the monsters run off.”

“And also they freak out whenever something weird is close by, and it’s always good to have an early warning system like that.”

“What do you have to work on?” 

“Not much. We were tracking some strange footprints shortly before we came across you. We lost them though.”

“It was enough to tell us that we’re not hunting anything natural.”

“It either walks on two legs or ten. It’s hard to tell.”

“Fareeha?” A voice crackled to life over her voice comm and she jumped slightly at the suddenness of it.

“Mei?” The connection was obscenely bad and all Fareeha could hear was the very edges of the scientist’s voice. 

“I know where they went. It took Winston and I followed them! They’re at the top of the largest mountain. Hurry, Fareeha. We don’t have much time. The Stormbringer is away so you must go and find them now.”

With that little bit of cryptic nonsense, Mei’s comm shut off.

“Mei?” 

No response.

“Problems?” Asked Peter.

“That was one of my companions. She says that we want to go towards the mountain.” She pointed towards the largest mountain on the horizon. “She says that that’s where my teammates are.”

“That’s better than running around in circles and hoping we’ll run into something.” Jacob said, “we’ll still need to stop by the rez and let our granny take a look at you.”

“No.” Fareeha said firmly, “I’m fine. We need to go immediately.”

“That’ll take us a couple hours.” Peter said. “You might as well try to rest a little.”

“Are you okay with the cold?” Jacob asked. 

“My suit will keep me warm.” Fareeha assured him, “but if you happen to have a hat anywhere...?”

They did happen to have a spare hat lying around. They also gave her her own ski mask and goggles, which would excellent if she could ever get her suit flying again. A comfortable silence fell between the three of them as they sped between trees and over rivers while the pale winter sun shone over them. Fareeha meanwhile examined her suit’s systems and found that while her flight capabilities were currently disabled-- nothing her repair programs themselves couldn’t eventually fix-- her rockets were perfectly online.

“I just realized,” said Peter when they stopped some time later to give their dogs a rest, “that I forgot to ask if you were hungry. We have some jerky and food bars in the bag by your feet and our mom packed me some homemade apple juice.”

Before Fareeha could say that she was, in fact, very hungry, one of Jacob’s dogs let out a howl. Fareeha had never in her life heard any animal make such a noise of sheer, heart-wrenching terror. It did not take long for the other dogs to follow, filling the cold air with two dozen terrified howls.

“That’s our cue.” Peter shouted, jumping into his sled, which Fareeha had been perched on, and ushering his dogs forward. Jacob did the same and they were off.

“Why are we running?” Fareeha shouted as their sled steadily picked up speed, “I thought were were trying to track them?”

“We are!” Jacob shouted back, “and we’re not running, we’re chasing! Look!” 

He pointed up ahead, and that was when Fareeha saw the mound in the snow. Mounds during the winter, especially up north, were not unusual and would not generally be noteworthy, but what made this one so special was that it was moving. Whatever was moving under the snow was going at such a pace that even the dogs could just barely keep up with it. Despite their fear, the dogs were faithfully doing their duty and were pursuing the mound with fervour, their terrified howling transformed into angry snarling. 

The brothers swerved their sleds until they were trailing on either side of the mound, and leaving enough room for Jacob to level his rifle without fear of hitting any of the dogs.

_Bang!_

The mound writhed and shrieked as it skidded side to side before grinding slowly to a halt. The brothers stopped too a healthy distance away.

“We could go and take a look.” Peter said, “but that might be a bit stupid. If it’s still alive, it’ll kill us.”

“Allow me.” There was still a lot of space between them, so Fareeha had no issue with raising her arm and blasting the mound with her rocket a couple times. The resulting explosion was less dramatic than one might think in regards to her rockets, but whatever was under there was bound to be dead by now. Ordinarily Fareeha was the kind of person who liked to know what she was shooting at before she shot, but this was a very special circumstance.

In any case, it was hardly over.

“We should run.” Fareeha said calmly.

“Why?”

“Behind us.”

Peter and Jacob took one look behind them and immediately jumped back on their sleds and ushered their dogs forward as fast as they could go.

Another mound had appeared behind them, only this one was far, far bigger and sounded unfortunately like a meat grinder.

Despite their situation, Fareeha thought, for the third time in an hour, how exciting it was to be on a dog sled. Her second thought was how indifferent the world around them felt to their harrowing experience. The winter sun still shone with offensively cheerful brightness and the slightest breeze rustled the branches. The bright blue sky was beautiful, broken only by puffs of white clouds, completely free of the storm that had gripped it mere hours ago.

And yet.

They slowed down some time later after the bigger mound seemed to have given up. When it became clear that no monster was going to leap out of the snow and eat them, they stopped altogether and broke their intensely grim silence.

“What was that?” Fareeha asked, checking her rockets out of habit.

“No idea.”

“When we first started out, our dogs kept freaking out every night and we felt like we were being hunted.” Jacob explained. “It disappeared a couple days ago, so we thought maybe it got bored of us and left.”

“If I were a monster, I’d have better things to do than pick on us.” Peter said dryly. 

“You said you were tracking a monster.”

“Yeah, but not this one. This one is different and runs away when it’s around bright lights or loud sounds. The one we’re tracking is way bigger and stands on two legs.”

“Never seen that other one before though.” Peter murmured. “Strange that there’s two of them now and that it chased us. Not to mention that we’ve never seen them out during the day before.”

Fareeha’s comm crackled to life again.

“ _Keep going. You must outrun them._ ” Mei’s voice told her. This time, despite the bad interference, Fareeha caught a chilly edge that took the place of the usual cheer in the scientist’s voice. It sounded like Mei, but Mei would never talk like this.

“ _Your mother and the others only have a few more hours left. Afterwards they will suffer a fate worse than death. Those who accept continue in their dreams, but those who do not become twisted and torn apart. You must hurry, Fareeha._ ”

“Who is this?” Fareeha demanded, “you are not Mei! What have you done with her?”

A laugh. So cold.

“ _They are approaching._ ”

And then it was gone.

“It hates dogs.” Peter mumbled to himself, and Fareeha was struck with a powerful feeling of foreboding. It was this feeling that caused her to look behind them.

In the stillness of the forest, it was easy to spot the one thing that was extremely out of place. A mound was moving towards them again, bigger and angrier than it was before.

Fareeha didn’t hesitate. She raised her arm and shot three rockets into the snow as the three of them took off in the sled. It was deeply concerning to her how little her rockets seemed to slow it down. One collided with the creature under the snow head-on, and yet it didn’t so much as swerve under the impact. Fareeha resisted the urge to fire a few more into it, as she didn’t have unlimited rockets. That’d be cool, but not actually possible.

“Holy shit!” Shouted one of the brothers. Or, at least, that’s what Fareeha thought they said. Their cursing had dissolved into a language she didn’t understand.

The cheerful winter sun continued to watch them as they slid along between the trees of what should be a perfectly peaceful forest, their dogs all task to their maximum capacity. They didn’t dare slow down to rest again though, as another lump in the snow appeared directly to Fareeha’s left, so close that she could have reached out and touched it if she dared.

She could not fire at this one, it was far too close, so instead she found a knife buried somewhere under her and swung it in an arc and tried to plunge it into the mound. It sank only a half-inch before it stopped with an abrupt clank of metal hitting metal. She didn’t have any time to wonder what this meant when her sled started to swerve wildly side-to-side and she spun around just in time to see Peter disappear.

A black oily tentacle lashed out of the snow to her right and wrapped itself firmly around her arm. She only had half-second to process it when it plucked her from the sled with terrifying ease and pulled her beneath the snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I bet everyone thought that I was done with this. I AM BACK.
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> Fareeha wakes in the darkness of a cold, wet room with only the icy voice of a monster to guide her to safety. 
> 
> If Fareeha wishes to survive, she must escape the Seamstress, who wishes to make her beautiful, the Barber, who wants more than just her hair, and lastly the Dentist, who is determined to make her a smile she won't be afraid to hide.


	19. The Seamstress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fareeha wakes up to find herself in a do-or-die situation and she must escape not only for her own sake, but for her friends and mother.
> 
> Such things are never easy. It is lucky for her that she has a guide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Some gross stuff but nothing too descriptive.

“Such beautiful hair.” A voice said to her while Fareeha was still halfway out of consciousness. Her hair was gently lifted and tugged, being carefully inspected by some unknown person. Fareeha groaned and opened her eyes. For a moment she thought the impact had knocked out her sight, but then she realized that no, she was dangling upsidedown, without her suit, in an extremely cold and dark room with something breathing on her face.

Another tug at her hair, harder this time. Fareeha hissed and instinctively batted it away. Something, a hand perhaps, though it did not feel like any Fareeha had felt before, came down hard on her arm and held her with a steel grip. Bladed fingers cut into her flesh and Fareeha could feel the warm streams of her blood begin to flow down her arm.

“Careful, pretty one.” The slithery voice said again right into her ear, causing a wave of stinking breath to wash over her. Fareeha gagged and struggled to pull away. Whatever held her continued to hold her, though the grip loosened a touch. “If you upset me, you’ll die. You don’t want that, do you?”

Gods.

That was a child’s voice. A sing-song voice of a little girl spoken with a french accent. 

“I’m going to make you a pretty dress to go with your pretty hair and pretty face.” The girl sang, letting Fareeha go and moving away. “You’re going to be my favourite. I can tell.”

Fareeha ad seen horror movies before and she could already see where this was going. Still, knowing what might happen didn’t make being here any less terrifying.

“Where are the others?” She asked, keeping her voice as calm and non-threatening as possible.

“The boys?” The little girl said “boys” with a tone of childish disgust. “I gave them to my brothers. They like omnics you know. Like to see how far they can bend before they break.”

Lovely.

“You stay here. If you’re bad then I’ll have to put you in time-out with all the others. If you’re good then I’ll make you the most beautiful dress you’ve ever seen. I want to be a dress-maker when I grow up you know. I’m going to be famous.” And with that last bit of eagerness, the creature with the child’s voice turned and left the room. Her footsteps were strange, sounding more like a slither of a massive centipede than that of a little girl. The sound of it sent an unsettled chill down Fareeha’s spine.

Well, Fareeha could say with certainty, that she was truly and properly scared, but letting that fear hinder her was not part of her plan. Not that she currently had a plan beyond getting down and finding where Jacob and Peter went to. 

“ _The Seamstress, the Barber, and the Dentist._ ” A voice crackled to life in her ear, and Fareeha realized with a start that they had missed her earpiece when taking off her suit.

Mei’s continued to speak in that flat, emotionless parody of Mei’s actual voice. “ _They are the fate of those who refuse to give their minds over to the Stormbringer. He twists their bodies and their minds are in tatters. They still think and feel, and some part of them are aware of what was done to them. That is their punishment for rejecting paradise._ ”

“What are you?” Fareeha asked, “You’re not Mei. What did you do with her?”

A cold laugh.

“ _You need to escape. If you do not, your companions will share their fate. Your mother will die._ ”

These words hit Fareeha like a car. She hadn’t even seen what monster had touched her earlier, but every sense in her body was so deeply repulsed by it that the feeling still lingered, even now after the creature’s departure. The idea that her friends could become like that... The idea that her mother could die again. For real this time.

No. She will not lose her mother again. If she had to personally fight all the horrors this place holds to get to her and bring her to safety, then Fareeha would do it. 

Her mother would do the same for her.

First thing she had to do was get down. Using only her fingers and years of intense physical conditioning, Fareeha reached up and tugged at whatever was holding her to the ceiling. A quick exploration told her that she wasn’t really tied, as she expected, but was stuck to the ceiling with something that felt like cement. The material wasn’t nearly as strong and it crumbled easily when Fareeha struck it with her fist. 

“Oof.” She grunted as she fell face-first onto a cold and unpleasantly oily ground.

“There is no light.” The voice said. “They cannot bear to see what they’ve become so they have destroyed every source of light.”

“How am I supposed to find the others and get them out?” Fareeha hissed as she sat up, wincing as her hand came down on something squishy and foul-smelling.

“ _I left you a gift. Find it and it will help you._ ”

Fareeha’s hand knocked against something long and heavy. Curious, Fareeha picked it up and explored it with her fingers. It was when she found a button and flicked it on did she realize that she was, in fact, holding a flashlight. 

From her surprisingly wide beam of light, Fareeha was able to see that she had been dangling from the ceiling of a dilapidated library. The rows of empty bookcases stretched in all directions around her, the smell of rotten wood and mold was overpowering now that she was closer to the ground. The windows looked like they were magnificent once, expensive and elegant, but someone had come along and boarded them all up. The wallpaper too had once been elegant with their gold with a white patterns, but time and weather had stripped them all away.

Fareeha got up, the colourless carpet squished under her feet. The only sound that came from the building was a steady creaking of old wood and the occasional drip of water. Nothing sinister in itself, but knowing what was out there made it especially eerie.

One good thing about her suit being gone was that now she could move silently out of the room, the floor beneath her barely creaking as she went. The hallway looked just as bad as the library, with its once-lovely wallpaper a ruined mess, and the carpet was littered with debris and occasionally fell away to holes in the floor. Fareeha would need to watch her step. The smell of mold was especially strong out here, and Fareeha could tell that it was a foregone conclusion that she was going to be sick after this. It was a good thing her girlfriend was such a world-class doctor.

Her thoughts turned briefly to Angela, and she wondered what she was doing right now. She couldn’t afford distraction right now though, so she pulled her thoughts away and focused on the dark hallway stretching before her. It was so long that the beam of her flashlight couldn’t quite reach.

It only took a few steps before Fareeha’s foot came down on some of the debris on the floor, the little white shards giving away with a crunch. She took a step back and realized that the floor was actually littered with tiny bones. Nothing larger than an owl, thankfully, but the further she went down the hallway, the more and more bones there were. Eventually, no matter how carefully she tread, her foot would come down to the sound of multiple bones creaking and snapping with every step. Her heart pounded as she expected something to come barrelling around the corner, or to jump out at her from one of the many rooms she passed.

The silence of the building, the absence of the noise that would indicate danger, was perhaps more terrifying than the actual noises Fareeha _could_ hear. The distant wind whistling against a rock face, the continuous drip of water, and the creaking of the old building around her. All of this gave her no sign of the creature that brought her here, and it filled with her with an unspeakable dread.

Crunch, crunch.

What was this place? The layout suggested that it might have been a school, with the library and the rooms she passed that looked suspiciously like classrooms. If it had been a school, then it had been a very fancy kind of school, one that housed the world’s elite or something like that. Yet the frozen north was not usually the kind of place people would usually set up fancy schools for rich kids. No, it was the kind of place you’d set up a fancy school that you didn’t want found.

Fareeha peered into a room and noted the overturned desks and the ruined smartboard on the wall. Unlike the library and even the hallway, the classroom had a sense of severity to it that commanded absolute obedience. Perhaps it was the way the room was so plainly painted white, or that there were no decorations here. There was a coldness in this room that had nothing to do with the weather, a sense of cruelty so embedded in the air that it stuck around years after the school was abandoned.

Something terrible had gone on here.

Fareeha did not have time to stop and speculate. She had to find the two brothers and she had to get out of here. 

She continued down the hallway, her heart skipping a beat every other second.

“Why do people like haunted houses Uncle Gabe?” A young Fareeha asked as she watched Gabriel Reyes prepare his costume for the haunted house he had volunteered to do. He was artfully dressed as a zombie with his throat torn out. Fareeha was a little zombie with her face torn off. She was going to scare all the other kids so badly that they were going to cry, and Fareeha couldn’t wait.

“Same reason people like scary movies.” Gabe replied, “It’s fun being scared in a safe environment. It’s something to laugh about later.”

Fareeha nodded solemnly, accepting this as fact.

“What are you afraid of Uncle Gabe?” Fareeha asked, oblivious, in her youth, the seriousness of this question. Later in life she would wonder about this question in earnest, and would never have a proper answer. She would even wonder if she ever knew her Uncle Gabe at all.

Gabriel paused, before looking down at her with a grin. “I’m afraid your mum is going to yell at us for taking so long. C’mon, there’s nothing on Earth that’s scarier than your mum when she’s angry.”

The hallway eventually opened up into what must have been an entrance hall. She appeared to be on the third floor, looking down into a room so ruined by weather and time that only a shadow of its former splendour could be seen. It wasn’t as dark here, cracks in the roof let in weak streams of sunlight that illuminated the entrance hall in patches This told her that it was still day out, and the fact that she was neither hungry nor thirsty said that she hadn’t been out long.

Movement below caught her eye and she instantly crouched out of sight. She could not see clearly what it was, but as she peeked at it through the bars of the bannister, she felt a surge of unsettled disgust. Whatever was down there was unnaturally long and moved with the sound of wet flesh slapping against marble.

A child’s voice piped up from below, startlingly sweet and innocent. 

“ _Alouette, gentille alouette_  
Alouette, je te plumerai  
Aloutette, gentille alouette  
Alouette, je te plumerai  
Je te plumerai la tete...”

The creature below scuttled out of sight, leaving Fareeha feeling breathless in a way she couldn’t explain. 

What the fuck was that? Fareeha had seen many strange things both as a security officer and as a part of the newly-made Overwatch, but nothing she had seen even came close to that.

“ _Children are not exempt from the evils of this world._ ” The icy voice hissed in her ear. “ _Do not let her catch you Fareeha, or else she will take your face and add it to her collection._ ”

“What are they? Why are they here?” Fareeha demanded in her lowest whisper. 

“ _Monsters. Why they were here is not a part of your story. That they are here and that they have your friends is, however. You need to go to the basement. That is where the Dentist and the Barber lurk._ ”

Fareeha was getting frustrated by the string of non-answers coming from her mysterious aide. 

“Who _are_ you?” She said with as much force as she could manage while still whispering, “why are you helping me?”

The thing talking to her did not answer for a full forty seconds, during which time Fareeha debated her next move. She could cut down on a lot of travel time if she just vaulted over the bannister and climbed down to the main floor, but there was a strong chance that the rotten wood would give away and she could give away her location to the entire household. The last thing she wanted was to have two broken legs with a monster bearing down on her. No, it looked like she was going to have to continue creeping down the hallways until she found stairs and then go down as far as she could go.

“ _I cannot tell you who I am. I cannot tell you why I am helping you beyond that a deal made is a deal repaid. Only know that you are a part of my story, and that I am now a part of yours._ ”

“You’re determined to be as vague as possible then.” Fareeha sighed, finally accepting that she wasn’t going to get any personal information from her helper.

“Can you at least tell me what happened to Mei?”

“ _Gone. Not captured. I found this by chance. Where she is is none of my concern._ ”

That was something at least. Assuming the creature wasn’t lying.

Fareeha didn’t trust the stairs the moment she saw them. They were as old and rotten as everything else in this place, and looking at them was enough to make them creak. She should have taken her chances with the bannister.

Sighing, she stuck as close to the wall as she could, her hand gently pressed against the cold, wet walls for balance as she made her way down. Her foot came down on the final step and the wood gave away with a loud crack that echoed down the dark hallway. Her heart hammered for a second, hoping beyond hope that somehow no one had heard her.

THUD.

A sound down the hallway. Swallowing heard, Fareeha quickly switched off her light and moved down the hallway towards a nearby open door. Ducking inside, she felt her way towards the front of the classroom and curled underneath the teacher’s desk. Not an easy task for a woman of her size, but she didn’t feel like fighting an unknown creature armed with nothing but a flashlight.

THUD.

THUD.

THUD.

They were footsteps, Fareeha realized. Footsteps from some monstrous elephant-sized feet as they pounded slowly down the hallway.

THUD.

It passed the door of the classroom Fareeha was hidden in and, to her horror, paused. All she could hear was wet wheezing and gurgling, which sounded a lot like someone who had a throat full of phlegm and who was trying desperately hard to not drown because of it. A desperately foul smell began to seep towards her from the door. It was a combination of feces mixed with burnt and rotten flesh doused with an overpowering stench of urine,

Moments passed. Fareeha forced herself to take small steady breaths. Hoping beyond hope that it would get bored and move on.

After an eternity, it turned around and slowly thundered away, its footsteps causing the wooden floor to shake as it retreated. It paused again some distance away from her door and Fareeha could hear it clearly as it gagged and gurgled before letting out a massive retching sound, followed by an unpleasant splatter as it unloaded a shocking amount of liquid onto the floor. This went on for several seconds where Fareeha had to force herself not to gag at either the smell nor the sound before it ended. The monster paused, as if listening, before continuing on its way.

Only when the footsteps were completely gone did Fareeha gingerly rise from her hiding place and click on her flashlight. She honestly didn’t want to look, but a morbid curiosity and the fact that it was going to be in her path anyway got her to walk to the hall and peer at the mess it left behind.

It was vile. There were no other words for it. So vile and disgusting that Fareeha actually felt faint at the sight of it, and she had seen many disgusting thing in her lifetime. It was essentially a pile of the worst things the human body was capable of regurgitating, only on a much, much larger scale, as it was also on the walls and ceiling. And here she was with only the thinnest foot covering. If she walked through it, she would feel every bit of it. 

Well. She wasn’t going to go through it if she could help it. The rooms, she had noticed, were sometimes connected. Perhaps she would be lucky and either find a connected room that would help her go around this mess, or find something that could help her get over it without touching it.

A quick glance around the room she had hidden in told her that there were no doors there, so she checked the one on the opposite side. When she entered, she was surprised to see that there was a shelf on one side of the classroom, one that didn’t look like it belonged there. As she got closer, she realized that the shelf was lined with jars. At first it seemed as if the jars only held strings, but as her light passed over them, the strings started to wiggle and change shape. Fascinated, she leaned closer to examine one jar that held what seemed to be two small pink slugs. They looked perfectly harmless as they wiggled their way around their jar. Cute, even.

“What are these?” Fareeha asked, gently tapping the jar with her finger. She noticed that there were no air holes on the top of the lid.

“ _I am not magically in tuned to your sight. I cannot see what you can see._ ” Fareeha couldn’t help but feel a tiny burst of amusement at the irritation in the cold one’s voice. That was probably the most emotion she’s heard from it since all of this started.

“I am at a shelf full of jars of slugs. Why are they keeping slugs here?”

“ _Do not touch those. They are dangerous beyond anything you can imagine, and if they get inside you, then you are as good as dead._ ”

She pulled her hand away quickly. Parasites? No thank you.

“There was something here not long ago. It was big and disgusting and it left a huge mess on the floor.”

“ _The Dentist. Follow him, and it will lead you to your friends._ ”

She didn’t really want to, but life was all about not doing what you wanted to do.

It turned out that the slug room wasn’t connected to another room either, which meant that she had to find a way over the bile. Some looking later allowed her to find a long board that she hoped would stop her from getting ankle deep in muck. She took a deep breath before walking out into the hallway with her bridge and slapped it down and immediately saw that it was only just barely high enough to get her over, but she would still stain the underside of her feet. It was better than nothing, so, after she ducked back into the slug room to grab some fresh mold-filled air, she scrambled across as quickly and quietly as she could and held her breath until she was a ways down the hall. It still smelled really bad, but now she could breath properly.

The Dentist was very easy to follow, as it turned out, as it left footprints of its own bile behind. The prints themselves were perfectly round and the size of dinner plates, which made her wonder if maybe she was following some kind of elephant monster.

When she was young she would make a crayon drawing of something, monsters usually, and show it to her Uncle Jack. He was always good at drawing, so he would make his own drawing based on hers and it always delighted her. She once drew an elephant monster with spider eyes and had waited eagerly for Jack to finish his drawing. When she finally saw the final product, it genuinely terrified her and the image haunted her nightmares for the next week. Still, despite that she was determined that Jack shouldn’t stop. She liked spending time with him.

Things were different nowadays, as he was not the man he was before. His interactions with her were formal and distant, leaving her with an emptiness that was hard to fill. Many of the people who had once told her that they loved her died, only to not be dead after all. At least her mother still loved her. At least she still had that.

But was it so wrong that she wanted a tiny piece of what they used to have? They were all happy once, weren’t they?

A scream of pure rage broke through her thoughts and vibrated through the house with such an intensity that the walls rattled. It took her a moment to realize that the Seamstress must have finally realized that she had escaped. The urgency of her situation was now at critical levels, and she couldn’t afford to meander along thinking of things that once were.

She picked up her pace and jogged as quietly as she could down the hallways and down two sets of stairs. The increasing chill and cement walls told her that she was on her way down into the basement.

 _I’m coming Peter and Jacob._ She told them, sticking as close to the wall as she could as she crept down the wide stairway.

_We’ll escape this place together._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still live!
> 
> I could promise that the next one will come quicker but I'm not so sure. I have work and school to deal with soon after all.
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> What lives in the basement of the mysterious ruin of a school? Fareeha is about to find out.


	20. Tell me a story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fareeha tries to learn more about her mysterious helper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No particular warnings for this chapter. Besides mentions of cannibalism I guess.

It never meant anything good when two different teams went silent. Angela didn’t have to be a veteran to know this. She hovered over her computer in her corner of the room, the rest of the room being taken up by the Shambali monks as they entertained themselves with Reinhardt and Jesse. The atmosphere was energetic and cozy, the monks having just completed a successful speech to a chanting crowd.

Their leader had retired to her quarters shortly after they returned to their hotel, citing the need for rest and telling the others to go out and enjoy themselves. The monks were in the process of planning the rest of their day when they got distracted by Jesse’s gun tricks and Reinhardt’s flexing. Zenyatta and Genji had wandered off to do their own thing. They were good together, Angela thought.

She checked her computer again. Athena reported that there were no communication from Jack’s team, telling her that the signal was being actively blocked and that they could not reach any of them. That was worrisome. Ana’s team didn’t have the same excuse, the implication being that there was no one around to answer their comms. That Athena said that their general health ranged from “okay” to “pretty poor” only heightened her worry.

Especially when that team was the one with her girlfriend on it.

Something was wrong and they needed to do something about it. More specifically, she needed to go to Canada and check the situation out herself. She also needed to send a team to go check on Jack’s Team’s last known location. Who did they have left?

She glanced around the room. Reinhardt, Jesse, Genji, Zenyatta, and herself. Mako and Jamison too, of course, but they were not the type of people who should be trusted on possible rescue missions. There was also the fact that they couldn’t leave the Shambali unprotected. Hmm perhaps she and Jesse should go Northward while Reinhardt and Zenyatta could go into Hawaiian waters, leaving Genji here to guard the Shambali by himself.

Angela sighed. This was so much easier back in the day when they had far more operatives to work with.

Her unease gnawed at her as she inspected the Canadian team’s channel again, specifically Fareeha’s. Hers and Mei’s were the only two actually working, but she couldn’t raise them no matter how much she tried.

You’d better be okay, Fareeha, Angela thought as she got up to go talk with the rest of the team.

I’m coming.

xXx

Fareeha learned quickly not to touch the walls. The slimy texture and the smell clung to everything that had the misfortune to linger near, and Fareeha was one such unfortunate person. She grimaced as she plucked at a strand of her hair; she was going to have to take a dozen showers to get this smell out.

Though a disciplined soldier, Fareeha liked conversation every now and then, and decided to turn to her only source. 

“You don’t sound human.” It wasn’t the most elegant way to start a conversation, but how else was one supposed to talk to a creature of unknown origin? “You don’t sound like an omnic either. Are you one of them?”

No answer. It didn’t seem very talkative. 

She travelled down the cold hallway while making a desperate effort not to make any noise. A futile effort as bones broke underfoot and each step sounded dangerously down the hall. Her fingers twitched with a nervous energy around her flashlight as she fully expected something to burst out of the shadows and barrel towards her.

The rooms down here were few and far between, and most of the doors Fareeha tried were locked. However, a ways down the hall she struck lucky and came across a perfectly open door, and she went and invited herself inside. Inside seemed to be a laboratory of some sort, but it was so covered in grime that Fareeha couldn’t even begin to guess its original purpose.

Was this a lab for the students of this strange school to practice in? Or were the students practised on?

Fareeha watched movies. She knew the tropes.

With that ominous thought in mind, Fareeha moved further into the room. There were a few papers scattered about, but most of them were so damp that they didn’t reveal anything useful. One one particular paper that was slightly less waterlogged than all the other, she found a logo of a white DNA strand with the word “Gene Pool” slapped over it.

Interesting, thought Fareeha, but that didn’t tell her anything.

Though Fareeha looked around some more, she found nothing of significance. Who Gene Pool was was going to have to be a mystery for another day.

The hallway eventually branched off in different directions. Each path darker, colder, and more foreboding than the next. Fareeha lowered her flashlight and scanned the floor and walls. The smelly footprints had faded away by now with only a lingering stench. The stench was all she had to go on, so she chose the hallway that smelled the worst.

“I hate mazes.” A young Fareeha complained to her mother during their Halloween celebration. Her zombie make-up that Gabe had put on her held up incredibly well, having so far withstood Fareeha’s energetic antics.

“Do you? I suppose I missed that the first twenty times you complained about it.”

“Moooooom.”

“Alright, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to, but I heard that there was a huge candy prize right in the middle. I guess some other kid will have to get it instead.”

Almost instantly, Fareeha’s competitive spirit rose at the thought of a challenge. Well, she might hate mazes, but she also hated losing, so there was only one logical thing to do.

“I’ll go.” She said with firm resolve, “I’ll show them how it’s done.”

A scream tore through her thoughts. It was a long, drawn-out screech filled with all the agony mankind inflicts upon himself. The scream was closely followed by another, and then another. Words joined the screams as the echoed down the miserably cold hallways, pleading, begging, demands for mercy, all spoken in multiple languages. All speaking at the same time to the point where it easily became meaningless noise. Some voices were old, some were young, there didn’t seem to be any particular voice that rose above the others.

Fareeha was immediately torn between two instincts: to run down the hall without the screaming or to run down the hall towards the screaming. They were obviously in so much pain and Fareeha felt the need to help them so intensely that she automatically took two steps down the tunnel. However, some instinctual part in her brain noted that the screams didn’t sound natural, but it was in a way that she couldn’t immediately identify. 

Danger. Her base instincts whispered.

“ _The Barber._ ” the voice in her ear said in Mei’s usual cool tone. “ _Continue to follow the Dentist, those screams that you hear are no more real than the voice I am using to speak with you. Remember, it is the Dentist who has your friends._ ”

“Smells like a sewer down here.” Fareeha complained a minute later. 

Predictably, it didn’t respond.

The ground steadily became more and more muddy, and Fareeha forced herself to think of good things to keep her mind off the foul-smelling fluids leaking through her suit between her toes.

The Overwatch Halloween party had been a tremendous success. Fareeha won the costume party in her age group and Gabriel came in second place after her mother’s and Reinhardt’s King and Queen (in that order), costumes.

Fareeha showed off her small trophy to her father later, her face lit up with pride as her father praised her, clearly very proud of her too. Her reward was a trip to their favourite icecream store and a very pleasant afternoon of feeding ducks and getting chased down by Canadian geese. 

“Do monsters have families?” Fareeha asked, returning swiftly to the present when she felt something particularly unpleasant squish under her foot. “If there are others like you, then that means that you are one big monster family, right?”

No answer.

“What about love?”

A memory comes to her. A cool, cloudy, night in a small Mediterranean town. It was the perfect place for her and Angela to do something they technically shouldn’t.

“We shouldn’t.” Angela said, torn between excitement and disapproval. She was dressed in her angel gear, and Fareeha was in her rocket armour.

“I know we shouldn’t, that’s part of the fun.” Fareeha replied, though she, herself, was not so sure of this rule-breaking thing they were doing either. Not even when she was a teenager unhappy with her mother’s decisions on her life had Fareeha been what people would call “rebellious.” 

“We aren’t rebellious teenagers.” Angela protested, though she took Fareeha firmly by the hand.

“No, because rebellious teenagers wouldn’t make sure that we wouldn’t be in anyone’s flight path. We are adults, so we are responsibly breaking rules.”

Fareeha grinned under her flight mask before shaking Angela loose and then launching herself into the sky. After a moment, Angela followed, her golden wings expanding as the two of them towards upwards into the clouds.

They broke through together, holding hands as they hovered there beneath the heavens and before the moon. It was if all the beauty in the universe had concentrated into that one single moment, and as Fareeha looked over at Angela, seeing the stars reflect in her bright blue eyes, she swore to herself that she would never forget this.

Fareeha waited for an answer, and for a while it seemed like she wasn’t going to get one.

“ _We all would not be who we are if we were untouched by love._ ” The creature with Mai’s voice answered cryptically. “ _It is because of love that we are all here. You. Us. Those children that once lived here. No one is safe from the consequences of love._ ”

Fareeha, of course, was thrilled that she was finally being talked to about something other than what direction she should be going. “You say that as if you think that all love does is hurt others. That is not true.”

“ _Perhaps. Love is the flame that warms mankind. However, when fire is fuelled by poison, it becomes poison. Hatred, obsession, anguish, all these things can taint a beautiful memory and transform it into a ceaseless inferno, a terrible sin. We are that sin, but one day it well be the sinner who pays the price for our existence._ ” There was a mournful edge to the end of his words, and for a moment Mei’s voice faded out and gave way to something else, but the moment was so short that Fareeha wasn’t even sure she heard it.

“You want your creator dead?”

“ _We only want to be free._ ”

They fell a quiet moment, and Fareeha felt some kind of understanding between them. What, exactly, the understood was not entirely clear.

“Tell me a story.”

“ _Stories are sacred things._ ”

Fareeha held her breath, both out of anticipation and because the smell of the tunnel was exceptionally bad.

“ _Once there was a boy who lived in the woods with his mother. The boy was very sick and every day was a struggle to survive. The mother loved the boy very much, and gave her heart and soul to keep him alive and happy. He loved her very much too, and wished every day that he was strong enough to reassure her, to help her, or do even the most basic thing by himself._

_They had no money, the two of them, so the boy was never able to get the help he needed. They were outcast too, a pair of victims of small-town scrutiny. These were things his mother would cry about late at night when she thought he couldn’t hear._

_“I love you my boy,” she would say every morning and every evening, “I will protect you.”_

_Then one day their cabin was hit with a terrible winter storm and the power went out. They had no food, no ability to get warm again, and it became a race between starvation and ice to whom would claim them both first. The boy grew weaker and weaker, and it seemed as if he wasn’t going to survive. Seeing her son so frail, so helpless, made the mother decide to do one last final desperate thing to save him._

_As the blizzard raged outside, she took a knife, the biggest they had, and then used it to cut off her own arm. She used the last bit of fuel they had to make a fire and she cooked it for him. “Take this my child.” She said, pushing it against his unwilling lips. “Take this and live.” At first he refused, horrified by his mother’s actions, but hunger took over and he devoured it all._

_She died of her wound the next day, but before she faded from life, she touched his face one last time and said “Live.”_

_For a while the boy could only mourn her, but hunger claimed him again and he cut up his mother’s body, comforted by the knowledge that this was what she wanted, and ate her, piece by piece, until someone found the cabin many days later. They were horrified by the mother’s bones that scattered across the floor and they caught him like a wild animal and treated him like one._

_And that was the end of his story._ ”

Fareeha started at the abrupt end and immediately started to protest. “That’s it? What happened after?”

“ _Many things, Fareeha, but none that can be spoken of now._ ”

It paused, before humming a soft tune and singing softly in a tone that raised the hairs on the back of her neck and caused her stomach to twist.

“ _Once there was a monster with a broken soul  
All It wanted was to feel strong and whole  
But fearful were the big and the small  
So in Its agony, It devoured them all._“

The haunting song was cut short by a piercing scream down the tunnel behind her. Their conversation had ended, and now Fareeha had to deal with staying alive.

There was a soft sound “shaa” sound of something light being pulled over the mud. A squelch from uneven footsteps followed. It moved strangely, as if hobbling along on limbs that were not made for one another and on feet that was never meant to hold its weight.

“ _Run._ ”

Fareeha didn’t need to be told twice. At this point, however, the cold mud came up to her knees, making progress forward painfully sluggish. If she had been less trained and disciplined, she would have panicked and tried to surge forward the moment she heard the creature coming. She would have fallen forward and ended up face-first in the foul muck.

Luckily, she was a trained professional and kept a steady pace as she moved down the tunnel. Her flashlight scanned the walls in the desperate hope that she would find an escape.

_Squish, squish._

There was unquestionably something within breathing distance right behind her, and it, unquestionably, was about to attack.

Her light passed over an empty door on the wall to her right. She snapped back to it and noted the solid concrete floor just beyond the doorway. Even without the monster creeping up on her, she would have picked up the pace just for the chance to stand on solid ground.

Ten feet. Five feet. She was at the door and managed to put one foot on the blessedly solid ground. Nothing in life was ever that easy, however, and Fareeha felt something wrap around her ankle. She only had enough time to let out a startled gasp before her feet were swept out from under her. Her flashlight fell away from her fingers and landed on the concrete floor and rolled away, leaving only a slim patch of light in this horrifyingly dark tunnel.

It felt like she was intertwined with thousands of threads, all pulling and cutting into her skin with the sharpness of a papercut. She imagined herself wrapped in a spider’s web, with the spider herself pulling her closer and closer into her giant mandibles. Down she went, pulled through two feet of muck and she didn’t dare to try to open her mouth to scream or breathe. It was so dark, she couldn’t tell which way was up. She only knew which way she was being pulled and the sound it made. 

All she could hear was a chorus of terrible screaming that echoed grotesquely off the wet tunnel walls. Unwilling to just give up and die, she fought. Her hands scrabbled helplessly at the mud and she kicked and thrashed for all she was worth. 

It was with some surprise when her foot made contact with something solid. Fareeha’s experience told her that she had just bashed her foot through someone’s skull.

The screaming turned quickly into howls of rage as the monster wheeled away. The thin strands loosened just enough for her to wiggle free. She would sense it there, behind her, but she didn’t dare to turn around, and instead kept her eyes firmly on the room with the flashlight. 

She flew into the room and spun around to slam the door shut. The monster hit the other side with enough force to push it open a few inches, but Fareeha dug her feet in and pushed it closed. The flashlight sat a couple feet away, illuminating the floor and part of the wall in her narrow room. She debated diving for it and doing a quick sweep of the room for any weapons. Very quickly she realized that leaving the door for any reason was a terrible idea, and that she should just stay here and keep the door closed.

It was going to break through eventually, she though desperately, this door will give out.

However, the monster stopped its pounding and paused, as if listening. Then, in what sounded like a dozen voices hissing in unison:

“ _Intruder_ ”

_Squish, squish._

It was gone.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Fareeha stepped away from the door and knelt down to pick up her flashlight. She was so tired. She was cold, wet, and smelled so bad that her own stench burnt her nose and turned her stomach. Her hair was a clotted mess that hung in thick, ropey strands. She plucked at miserably and told herself that she was going to cut it the first opportunity she had.

Fareeha Amari was a grown woman, a soldier, so she didn’t allow herself to cry. She didn’t allow herself to wonder if she would ever escape to see her mother or girlfriend again. No matter how desperate things were, she had to continue believing that she would get out of here. That she would find her two friends and save them.

Hope was important.

Heroes don’t sit in small, dark rooms and stare at the wall. Fareeha took a deep breath and hauled herself to her feet. She clenched her fist in the dark and turned around to give the door a grim, defiant stare. She wasn’t going to let any of this get to her. She wasn’t going to let fear convince her not to move forward. 

_Knock, knock._

Her finger was inches from the door when an unexpected knocking sounded politely on the other side. She gasped and jumped so hard she dropped her flashlight. It clattered to the ground but, mercifully, didn’t break. 

_Knock, knock._

There it was again. The polite knock was so out of place that it took a moment for Fareeha to respond. 

“Who’s there?”

A pause. Then a longer pause.

Unwilling to waste any more time, Fareeha gripped the flashlight tightly and yanked open the door. For a second, she wasn’t sure if her eyes were working, or if her mind was playing tricks on her.

A basket. A perfectly ordinary, perfectly clean, picnic basket was dangling by a rope from the ceiling. She ran her flashlight up and down the tunnels, expecting some monster lurking just out of sight for her to reach out a hand so that it could grab her and drag her into the darkness. However, there was only the footprints left behind by the monster, and it was nearly impossible for her to figure out what it might have looked like by the misshapen feet alone.

She took the basket of course, and pulled the door closed so she could open it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually have like 2000 words more than this but I decided to end it here bc lol cliffhanger
> 
> NEXT TIME ON WAR WITHIN:
> 
> Being a hero always means sacrifice. That is what Fareeha had learned growing up, and it is time she decides what she is willing to give up to save an innocent life.

**Author's Note:**

> This actually started out as a Genyatta fic, but then I was like "Hey what if a bunch of other things happened too" and then all of this fic was born. I already have three more chapters written out, so I should be able to update somewhat consistently.


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